Life is a Fallacy
by Lunamoon1207
Summary: "I know what the world can do to a girl who only sees beauty in it." -Emily Prentiss. Aaliyah Sawyer is a woman who had to work for everything she got, even though it seemed everything fell apart in the end. Aaliyah grew up in Georgia, with her best friend Amanda Rollins. Her career in the Intelligence Unit and soon the FBI BAU. She falls in love with Emily Prentiss. Her story.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

_**First Day**_

_March 6, 2006_

The day started like any other day for Aaliyah Sawyer. Got out of bed at six in the morning and into her outfit; which was a navy, blue T-shirt that said '_Chicago Police' _on the front of it and her last name _Sawyer _on the back. Then she had her black yoga pants. And her hair up in a ponytail, some light makeup on, grabbed a granola bar and was out the door.

She walked out of her condo, and into the already busy Chicago. Aaliyah walked down into the parking lot, which was already only half full. _Chicago has some early risers. _She thought as she pulled out her keys to unlock her car. The car made a beep and she hopped into the driver's seat shutting the door behind her.

The drive to the 21st District Police Department wasn't long at all, and the traffic wasn't bad either. Aaliyah pulled into the parking lot and got a front row spot. She got out of the car and into the building. There she went downstairs and into the locker room where her uniform is.

Aaliyah hated being a traffic cop, it was so boring. She just wanted to be promoted already. It's already been three years. Maybe she'll get promoted today. Maybe.

The uniform made her feel so low rank but she had to start out here in order to get up on the totem pole. She went back upstairs with her uniform on to see if her partner was here yet. Of course he wasn't, but Sergeant Platt was. "Oh morning Sawyer" she said and smiled.

She hardly ever smiles. Period. At anyone, but Aaliyah realized she only said morning to her and ever really smiled at her. _Maybe I'm her favorite. _"Good morning" Aaliyah chirped.

"Hey Sawyer" Aaliyah looked up from where she was walking, which was to the break room to brew up a cup of coffee. "Come here" Sergeant Platt said as she gestured with her hand for Aaliyah to come over there. Aaliyah walked over to the front desk kinda worried, because she didn't know if she had done anything wrong. _Did I forget to turn off the coffee machine yesterday? Did I do the wrong paperwork? What did I do? _

"Yes" she said once she reached the front desk. "Sergeant Voight is working a case and he would like to speak with you."

"Okay" Aaliyah said nodding her head. She was staying calm on the outside but on the inside she was freaking out. _Oh my gosh! Am I getting promoted! Is he impressed with me and that's why he would like to speak with me? Okay Leah, take a deep breath, and get your thoughts together. _Aaliyah cleared her throat "When?" She asked.

"Umm" Platt mumbled moving around a bunch of papers, trying to to find what she was looking for in all the clutter. "Ah here it is" she said holding up a pink sticky note. "He wants to talk with you when the rest of the team gets here, which should be shortly."

"Okay" Aaliyah said. _Maybe I'll finally be promoted. After three whole years! _"But first I want you to fill out yesterday's patrol papers" Platt said plopping a stack of papers in front of her on the desk.

Aaliyah stood there slightly confused because her partner Adam Ruzek was supposed to do the patrol papers yesterday. He said he _would _do it. _Well that good for nothing mother-_"I want these done before Voight speaks with you"

"I thought Ruzek did them"

"Well he didn't so..." Platt trailed off, while Aaliyah stood there awkwardly. "Well, why are you just standing there; finish the paperwork" Platt snapped.

"Yes ma'am" Aaliyah replied grabbing the stack of papers and scurrying off to the squad room for the uniform officers. The traffic cop squad room is downstairs, and away from the other unit which is the Intelligence unit. She sat down at her desk which is very neat compared to the others. And she immediately began working on the paperwork.

Meanwhile in the Sergeant's office upstairs, Voight was reading through Aaliyah's file and was very impressed with her work. She was at the top of her class, she's very smart and hardworking; which is what he needs for the unit.

The case that they're working on they needed a young, blonde woman, because that was the perp's type. They were running out of time, if they went by the routine of the perp then he'll probably strike tonight; and they couldn't add anymore victims to his list.

A knock on the door made Voight look up from the file only to see Al. "Hey, have you decided on the newbie?" He asked.

"Yeah, I was just about to bring her up." Voight said, setting the file down and standing up.

_September 3, 1989_

_"Sweetheart tomorrow is your first day of school." Aaliyah's mother Alice said while setting a dinner plate in front of her. Which was corn, a slice of ham that was cut into bite sized pieces, and green beans. _

"_Really" Aaliyah chirped and kicked her legs under the dinner table excitedly. _

_"Mmmhmm your mother and I bought you a new backpack" Ron her father said, Aaliyah smiled even bigger. "Can I see it now?" She asked. "After dinner love" her mother replied. _

_Aaliyah nodded and ate extra fast so she could see her new backpack. "When is Lotte going to go to school?" Aaliyah asked, referring to her little, baby sister who was in the high chair eating corn. _

"_Charlotte is too young to go to school, she's only one so it will be a few years" Ron said. _

_Aaliyah nodded her head "I'm done" she hiccuped "can I go see my backpack now?" She asked. _

"_Not yet, you have to wait 'till we're all done" her mother said. _

"_But moooom" she whined. "Patience sweetie, patience is the key" _

_Aaliyah frowned and sat there playing with her hands waiting until her parents finished dinner. Which was maybe ten minutes. _

_Once her father had cleared the table and put the dishes in the sink. Then they showed her, her new backpack. It was a jansport backpack that was light blue, it almost matched the color of her blue eyes. "And here it has all the school supplies you'll need for kindergarten" her mom said opening up the backpack to reveal the school supplies. _

"_Do you like it?" Her father asked. Aaliyah nodded her head, her blonde hair bopping along. "Yes I love it"_

"_Okay, go get ready for bed, your father and I will come kiss you goodnight. And then tomorrow you'll start school" her mother sang happily the last part about starting school. _

_Aaliyah ran upstairs to get ready for bed._

Aaliyah finished up the paperwork just as Ruzek sat down at his desk. "You know you were supposed to the patrol papers for yesterday."

Ruzek looked up from sipping his cup of coffee. "Oh. I thought I did it."

"No you didn't because that's what I've been doing for the past hour and a half." Aaliyah said holding up the stack of papers.

Ruzek grimaced at the amount of paperwork. "Okay well to be fair, I had a date last night. So I had to be on time…"

A scowl formed on Aaliyah face. Ruzek broke away from her intense glare by taking a sip of his coffee. "I always do the paperwork Adam, it's not fair if I'm the only one doing the paperwork. You're my partner so we should be switching off like the rest of the people who work here."

Adam sighed because he knew she was right. "Look Leah, I'm sorry. You're right. That was a dick move of me to say I'll do the paperwork and then not do it. I'm sorry"

Leah looked up at Adam and he did look genuinely sorry, "Okay, apology accepted"

"Great, and I'll do today's patrol paperwork to make it up to you." Adam said

"Okay" Leah said but then got a sly smile on her face "well since I do about 360 days of paperwork and you only do it about five times per year, I'd say you owe me about two years and eleven months worth of paperwork"

"Hey wait that's not fair"

"Yes it is"

"Okay how about we switch off everyday who does it, starting today. I'll do it and then tomorrow you'll do it" Adam said

"Okay fine" Leah agreed. "You better stick to this plan" she said while they shook hands.

Just then Sergeant Voight walked into the squad room and right up to Leah's desk. "Officer Sawyer, I need to talk to you" Voight said, his voice was raspy like he smokes...a lot.

"Yes sir" Leah said standing up from her desk, Ruzek gave her a _what's going on look _while Aaliyah just shrugged and followed Voight out of the squad room. He punched in the code to the gate upstairs and led her up. She started to get a nervous pit in her stomach as they walked upstairs.

Once they were in the intelligence office, everyone turned their heads their direction. It was like in class when you were late and you walk in through the door and everyone turns their head in your direction; and then the whole class is looking at you.

"Everyone this is Aaliyah Sawyer, and she will be joining us today" Voight said.

"Hi, nice to meet all of you" Aaliyah said

"Alright this is Alvin Olinsky, Antonio Dawson, Jay Halstead, and Erin Lindsay"

Aaliyah shook hands with all of them and said a lot of '_hi, nice to meet you's' _

"Alright come with me" Voight said and led Aaliyah to his office. "Close the door and have a seat" he said once they were inside.

Aaliyah did as she was told and closed the door and had a seat. She was a bit nervous because Voight is a very intimidating man.

"Do you know why I called you up here?" He asked

"No sir"

Voight looked her in the eyes. _This guy has no problem with eye contact. _"I called you up here because we need your help on a case."

_This could be it. I could be getting promoted! _"The perpetrator rapes and kills his women every two days. He likes young, blondes. That's his type, he picks them up at clubs or bars. That's where you will come in, we need you to go undercover at one of the clubs where he likes to get his victims."

Aaliyah nodded her head, that was a lot to take in; but she was more than ready to take on this challenge. "Do you think you can handle that?" He asked

"Yes sir"

"Alright good, because if you've done good enough, then maybe, maybe I'll let you stay"

"To work in this unit?"

Voight nodded his head. "I won't let you down sir"

Voight nodded his head, "good, then you'll need this" he said handing her a badge. The badge itself was a silver star, that said _detective _and _Chicago Police_, and her badge number well, Aaliyah had to not crack up at it because the numbers were 7669. _Well what do you know I have the number 69 on my badge. Don't laugh. Don't you dare laugh. You are more mature than this. _

"Thank you sir"

Voight smiled "don't thank me, thank yourself for all the hard work you've put in. Now go change, and we'll brief you on the case after."

"Yes sir" Aaliyah said standing up "and thank you sir for this opportunity." She said and walked out the door.

_Aaliyah woke up to her mother stroking her hair. "Sweetie, time to get up. It's your first day of school." _

_Aaliyah stretched out and yawned. "I picked out an outfit for you it's on your chair." _

_Aaliyah rubbed her eyes sleepily "okay" _

"_And your father made you breakfast. So don't take too long or your food will get cold." _

_Aaliyah nodded her head before sitting up from the warm blankets. _

_Her mother walked out of the room she had no doubt that her daughter will do well in school. She already knows three languages; Dutch and Spanish, plus English._

_Her mother grew up in the Netherlands, and Aaliyah was born in Amsterdam. Her mother always thought that she needs to learn other languages; so she's been teaching her daughter Dutch and Spanish. She's been picking it up really fast. _

_Leah put on her light blue jeans with a red shirt that kinda had poofy sleeves but they weren't that poofy. After getting into her clothes Aaliyah went into her mother's bathroom so she could do her hair._

"_Momma" she said in the doorway of the bathroom "I'm ready for my hair" _

_Her mother smiled "kom hier liefde," Aaliyah gladly walked over to her mother and stood in front of the bathroom mirror with her mother behind her. Her mother brushed out her long, blonde hair that reached to her shoulders. _

_Aaliyah watched her mother intricately braid her hair into two braids. She saw the four leaf clover tattoo on her mother's wrist. She'd seen it many times before but never knew when she got it, or how long she's had it. _

"_Momma"_

"_Yes love"_

"_When did you get your tattoo?" She asked _

_Her mother smiled at her through the mirror "I got it in France" _

"_Cool, can we go to France?" She asked _

"_Yes, some day you will"_

Aaliyah walked down stairs with a big grin on her face. "Hey" Ruzek said when she reached the bottom of the staircase. "What did Voight want to talk to you about?"

Aaliyah started to walk towards the locker room "he said that he needed my help for a case"

"Really. Wow" Ruzek replied "I mean It's about time he promoted you, you work your ass off"

Aaliyah chuckled as she closed her locker getting what she needed. "Alright I'm going to go change" she said

"Alright" Ruzek said as as she started towards the restrooms or shower area "but hey, congrats" he yelled

"Thanks" she called back.

Aaliyah walked out of the locker room wearing a different outfit that she always kept in her locker in case she needed to change. The outfit was a nice white shirt, a black blazer, and black skinny jeans, with her black ankle boots.

She punched in the code to get back upstairs, she remembered it when Voight put it in. Back up stairs Voight was at the head of the room by the bullion board that had the victims and a suspect.

"Alright everyone, you all met Sawyer. Let's get started. The perp likes blondes, preferably young ones. He rapes and murders them every two days. Today is day two so he will be striking tonight. He picks up his victims at bars, takes them to a secluded place where he then rapes and murders them. His dump sight is in the river. So tonight officer Sawyer will be going undercover at one of the bars. Hopefully we'll nail this guy."

Aaliyah nodded her head. _Hopefully I won't screw this whole operation up. _"And Sawyer we'll be keeping surveillance on you at the bar" Al said

"Okay" she said nodding her head.

"Hey you want to go over the files with me?" Erin asked

"Sure" Aaliyah replied. She pulled up a chair at Erin's desk and sat down grabbing a file.

"You nervous?" Erin asked

"Umm not really" Aaliyah replied but that wasn't exactly the truth. She was very nervous, she just didn't want anyone to know that she was nervous because they might think that she's weak. But she does well when there's a lot of pressure.

"That's good" Erin replied, knowing that the first time she went undercover she was a bit nervous so she wasn't sure if Sawyer was telling the truth or not.

"So you're name is Aaliyah"

"Yeah but most people just call me Leah"

"Oh okay" Erin replied

"How long have you been a detective?" Leah asked

"Umm about five or six months"

"Oh so you're still kinda new"

"Yeah" Erin replied sheepishly "but now you're the new girl. It's about time they brought in another woman, this place is a boys club"

They both chuckled at Erin's comment "yeah if I get to stay"

"He'll let you stay" Erin said reassuringly

_The kindergarten classroom was very colorful, when Aaliyah first walked in after being greeted by her teacher, Mrs. Archer in the doorway. Mrs. Archer was a short, old woman with white hair. She had a very bright smile when greeting the children when they walked in. _

"_Go in and find your name tag" she said in a sweet voice. Aaliyah walked around the room looking at the clusters of desks, looking for her name tag. _

_Her name tag was in the last cluster of desks she looked. Leah sat down in the desk that said 'Aaliyah Sawyer'. Another girl sat down in front of her. She had red, orange hair, green eyes, and freckles on her cream cheeks. Aaliyah saw that her name tag read 'Kameron Hirst'. _

"_Hi" Aaliyah said _

"_Hi" Kameron replied, waving at her. _

"_My name is Aaliyah but you can call me Leah"_

"_Oh okay, my name is Kameron but you can call me Kami"_

_Leah smiled brightly "nice to meet you Kami." Kami smiled "nice to meet you"_

_A few seconds later another little girl with black hair, and pale skin sat down next to Kami, who was diagonal from Leah. _

"_Hi, I'm Leah" Leah said introducing herself to the new girl. _

"_Hey, I'm Laura"_

_And last but not least a boy came and sat down next to Leah "hi everyone I'm Brooklyn" he said as he sat down. _

"_Hi" everyone chorused_

_A bell rang and Ms. Archer walked in. "Good morning class, I'm Ms. Archer; and I am your kindergarten teacher." She chirped._

"_First I want everyone to stand up and tell everyone your name, how old you are, and one thing you like to do."_

_Everyone got up from their desk. "We'll start with this table here." Ms. Archer said gesturing to Aaliyah's table. _

"_You start first sweetheart" she said pointing to Leah. _

"_I'm Aaliyah, I'm four years old; and I like to read." _

"_Eww" some boy said from the other end of the classroom "reading is boring" _

"_Alright that's enough" Ms. Archer said. "Sit down Aaliyah" she instructed, and Aaliyah sat down in her seat. She didn't like the comment the boy said one bit. She thought it was mean. _

_While listening to everyone's names, ages, and what they like to do she realized that she was the youngest in the entire class. She didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. _

"_Alright now we are going to do an all about me paper" Ms. Archer said while getting a stack of papers from her front desk. She handed out four papers to her table, Aaliyah waited until everyone grabbed one before she did. _

_First question was 'what is your name?' Leah marked in 'Aaliyah Sawyer'. Then it was 'what is your favorite color?' She put 'blue' and then it was 'who is your best friend?' Of course she put Mandy._

When Aaliyah woke up today she was not expecting this to happen at all, she didn't expect to be standing at a bar looking for serial rapist-murderer. She stood with a drink in her hand, she had only taken a few sips out of the small glass. Voight had told her to start at the bar first then go to the dance floor. Aaliyah knew this operation was totally safe since there were cops in here. She saw Erin a few seats down from her looking around in the crowd, and Jay, well he was certainly enjoying himself a little too much on the dance floor.

The cops being here still didn't quite settle the pit that was brewing in her stomach. She had never done this before, and was indeed quite nervous. She wasn't necessarily nervous about the perp; she was more nervous about screwing the entire thing up.

Her outfit was definitely an eye catcher it would catch the attention to anyone. Her red dress that stopped right above her knees, and the cleavage. Well anyone would look, but that was what they were hoping for; since she's just his type.

Leah swallowed the rest of her beer that someone had asked to buy for her and walked towards the dance floor. She joined the group of bodies, dancing and swaying around her. The music was loud, and she wondered how on earth people haven't gone deaf by it yet. She moved to the music, enjoying herself a bit.

Leah wouldn't lie and say she hasn't been to a club before because that's not the truth. She's been to plenty of clubs before. She's been to ones in Chicago and New York with her best friend Amanda Rollins.

Aaliyah slowed a bit in her dancing when she felt someone looking at her. She felt that she could always feel when someone had their eyes on her, especially if they were boring into her. Aaliyah turned around to see a man with light, brown hair and hazel eyes. He had a drink in his hand sitting at the bar. He smiled with a toothy grin when she saw him. His front gold tooth standing out in all the whites.

Aaliyah returned the smile, a fake smile, one that could be easily mistaken for the real one. He gestured with his hand for her to come over, and she did.

She sat in the bar seat right next to him. "And who might you be?" He asked

"I'm Aaliyah"

"Aaliyah what a beautiful name" normally when someone would complement her name it was nice but this time. She wasn't sure, he just seemed off. _Maybe it's him. _The vibe didn't feel right with him, it was definitely different than other guys.

"Thanks" she replied with a shy smile.

"I'm Wayne" he said as he stuck his hand out for her to shake it. Of course she gladly took it. His hand was cold and clammy, and a had a big silver ring on his right ring finger.

"So what's a pretty girl like you doing here?"

"I'm just here to have fun you know" she shrugged. _Don't give out too much information about yourself. _But that was an easy rule for herself as she has been doing it for years.

"Ah if you're looking for a good time, I know how to give you a good time" Wayne replied with a smile as he looked down and twisted his ring for a second.

Aaliyah smirked "hmp. I'll think about it" _if I could get him to just confess, or alone. _

"Yeah, bet I could make your eyes roll to the back of your head"

_Is he for real?! _"Did anyone ever tell you that you have the most gorgeous, big, blue eyes?" He asked, his eyes full of desire that kinda freaked her out a bit.

"Yeah, people have told me that before" she said looking him right in the eye.

"You know why don't we get out of here, I have a great place where we can go." _This could be it. This is it. _

"Sure." She said as Wayne grabbed a hold of her hand and kissed it. Aaliyah smiled as he lead her out the back through the crowd of people and to the back door.

The cool breeze made her shiver a bit when he opened the back door. They were now both outside, he was still holding her hand.

"So, where are we going?" She asked

"It's a surprise" he smirked

"Oh really"

"Yes" he smiled. "Just like the others" he whispered which was barely audible but Leah picked it up.

The brick wall of the bar now became blurry as dark and light spots filled her vision, and the dull pain on the side of her head was unbearable but she couldn't close her eyes.

Her knee was in contact with his groin in a matter of seconds. "Shit!" Wayne cursed as he fell to his knees with his hand cupping his crotch.

"Wayne Anderson you are under arrest for the rape and murder of the two women; Alicia Carey and Hallie Jennings" Aaliyah said pulling out handcuffs from her jean jacket "you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in the court of law. If you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed to you." She finished, pulling him off the ground.

She saw Voight run over to her from the street. "We got him" he said. He looked at Wayne with a dirty and smug look that basically said '_we got you motherfucker' _

"Son of a bitch!" Wayne yelled "you're a cop" he yelled as he spit in Aaliyah's face. The spit landed right on her cheek under her eye, disgusted she wiped the spit off with the jean jacket.

Voight however was not having it as he punched square in the face. Wayne fell to the ground in a heap. "Son of a bitch, you broke my nose" he cried. He stood up from the ground and blood was gushing from his nose.

"Get him out of my face" Voight said and an officer loaded him in the back of a police car.

By then the rest of the team was with them outside. "Hey you did good" Olinsky said "for your first undercover assignment of course"

"Thanks" Aaliyah said and smiled. However this was not her first undercover assignment, but she'll take that to the grave as no one should ever know about it period. Not even Amanda knows about it.

_At recess Leah sat down on a bench that was shaded by trees. She pulled out a 'Berenstain Bears' book from her book back and instantly started reading. _

_A gust of wind blew her hair, and turned the book pages the wrong way. Deciding that is was definitely too windy to read she put the book back in her book bag, _

_Looking around Leah saw some kids playing tag. Deciding that would be fun, she got up and ran over to go join them. "Hey, can I play?" She asked a girl with dark brown hair. The girl turned around, she was at least five inches taller than Leah. _

"_You can't play" she sneered _

"_W-what why?"_

"_Because we already have a lot of people playing"_

_Leah tilted her head because she didn't know that there was a limit to the game tag. Deciding it wasn't worth fighting with this girl Leah turned around to head towards the bench. But that didn't stop Aaliyah from falling to the ground as the girl had pushed her. _

"_Hmp, babies can't play tag!"_

_Aaliyah stood up from the ground, dusting off grass and dirt. "That wasn't very nice" Leah said, her voice slightly wavering. _

"_Well I don't talk to babies"_

_Aaliyah turned around deciding it definitely was not worth it. Sitting back down on the bench, she watched the other kids play, wishing she could play with them._

_The bell rang signaling the end of school. Leah walked out with her class to the front of the school. When Aaliyah turned her head she saw Amanda. "Manda!" She cheered, running over to her. _

_Amanda turned around and smiled. "Hey, how was your first day of school?" She asked. _

_Leah shrugged her shoulders. "It was okay"_

"_Just okay?" Amanda quizzed _

"_Mmhmm" _

_Amanda arched an eyebrow knowing that she was lying "okay if you say so."_

_To Aaliyah it seemed that Amanda always knew everything, no matter what. Amanda is also five years older than her, and Amanda's little sister Kim, is three years older than Aaliyah. _

"_Well let's wait for Kim, and we'll walk home together"_

_Aaliyah nodded her head. It was maybe ten minutes later until Kim came out. Most of the children had already left, leaving just them and a couple of others. "Kim! Where the hell were you?" Amanda demanded "we've been waiting here for ten minutes!"_

"_Sorry, I was just talkin to my friends, chill out Amanda!" Kim yelled and stormed off in the direction of their houses. _

"_Ugh such a brat" Amanda muttered under her breath. "Alright let's go" Amanda said looking down at Leah. _

_Leah grabbed Amanda's hand and they started walking back, with Kim about hundred yards ahead of them._

"_Some girl pushed me" Leah said, after a few minutes of them walking "and she called me a baby"_

"_She did that!?" Amanda practically yelled to the whole neighborhood. _

"_I'm not a baby. Am I" Aaliyah asked _

"_No of course not, but you are short and you did start school a year early than you should have" _

"_I did?"_

"_Yeah but that's because you're smarter than most people your age so that's why your mom put you in school." Amanda said_

"_How do you know that?"_

"_I heard our mothers talking about it" Amanda said as she looked over and saw Leah had her head hang low, looking down at the ground. "Hey, Leah look at me"_

_Leah looked up at Amanda, her big eyes slightly squinting because of the sun "don't listen to what that girl said, she's an idiot. Don't let her or anyone get you down. In fact don't take shit from anyone. Okay"_

"_Shit…?" Leah questioned the weird word she had never heard before. _

_Amanda mentally face palmed herself for cursing in front of a four year old. "Just don't let anyone get you down"_

"_Okay" Leah said "but what's shit?" She asked_

"_Umm I'll tell you later but don't go asking around about what it is and don't tell your parents, okay"_

"_Okay" Aaliyah replied._

When she set her purse down on the counter of her kitchen, her butt buzzed from her phone. Pulling her phone out of her back pocket, Leah saw that it was an unknown number.

Swiping answer she put the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Sawyer we need to talk" a familiar voice said on the other end, she hated that voice and more importantly the voice it belonged to.

"Is that really necessary?" She asked, trying to already come off agitated.

"Yes it's about JTF-12"

A lump formed in her throat. _Why? Why? Why can't this just go away. _She thought because that's really all she wanted, for this to go away forever.

Nodding to herself knowing that she has to meet Clyde. It's what she has to do. "Okay, where?"

"Coffee shop down the street from your condo" he said

"Wait how do you…" shaking her head at the stupid question she was about to ask. Of course he knows where she lives, he's a fucking Interpol agent. "Never mind. I'll be there in five"

Grabbing a jacket, she was out the door. She didn't want to go, but she had to. There was no choice. The walk to the coffee shop was less than five minutes as it was just down the street.

The coffee shop was closed at this hour, but the seats outside were still open to the public. Leah walked over to the only table that had a person sitting in it. Sighing she walked over and took a seat.

"Good to see you Aaliyah" Clyde said and smiled

"Can't say the same" she grumbled "let's get down to business. Why are you here?"

Chuckling Clyde answered "it's always straight to the point with you, isn't it?"

"Yup" Leah replied "so…"

"I'm here because, we got him"

Aaliyah had to make sure she heard that correctly, she didn't know how long she's waited to hear that. Twelve, thirteen years. "He's dead"

"Well no, he's in a political prison in North Korea-"

"So he's not dead"

"Leah you have to understand we can't just kill him-"

"Yes you do, he's going to get out and he's going to hurt those agents that you sent in. Especially the one he fell in love with, she's a dead man walking" Leah spat

"Aaliyah, you don't kn-"

"Yes I do, I know him better than anyone, they're all dead unless he's dead"

"Aaliyah…"

"Don't call or try to talk to me unless he's dead" Leah said in anger as she stood up and walked away. _He doesn't understand, he never did, and he never will. Those agents especially the girl are dead men walking. He's going to get out and kill them all and then he'll come looking for me. _

By the time Aaliyah got back to her condo, tears were streaming down her face. She can't have this happen again. She knew the answers to her problems weren't at the bottom of a bottle but it was better than nothing, and something is always better than nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

_**I've Got Issues**_

_August 2, 2006_

The guy that they were chasing moved fast. Carlos Martinez, involved in a gang who had murdered an eight year old girl in a drive by. They had been trying to nail him and his gang for a few days now. They had just got lucky that he was where he was. The only problem with that is he's fast, but Aaliyah thinks she's faster.

With Dawson trailing behind her a bit they turned a corner where there are a bunch of abandoned buildings. Carlos just a few yards ahead, his pace slowing a bit from a few minutes ago.

Aaliyah could tell Dawson was slowly running out of breath, it makes sense though they've basically been sprinting for ten straight minutes.

Leah on the other hand didn't feel as fatigued as Dawson, she's loves running. She runs everyday after or before work. It really just depended. Running is her forte, not just literally but also figuratively. She's ran from a lot.

Leah had a nice strive and has kept a good pace so far. The wind blowing her ponytail and the slight layer of sweat on her face has been both a blessing and a curse. _Almost there. Almost. _She thought, _he's got to stop eventually. _

Rounding one more corner the guy tripped on a beer bottle, sending him tumbling to the ground. Speeding up Aaliyah called, "stay down and put your hands above your head!"

Carlos put his up above his head, while Dawson checked him for his gun; pulling out a piece from his pants. Leah pulled out her cuffs. "Carlos Martinez, you're under arrest for the murder of Lisa Wallis, and drug trafficking. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. If you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed to you." When Leah finished her speech cop cars came swarming around them.

A uniform cop came and took him away. "Damn your fast" Dawson muttered. Leah arched an eyebrow "thanks, not bad yourself."

"Want to grab a drink after work?" He asked.

"Yeah sure" Aaliyah replied as it's impossible for her to turn down a drink.

Back at the station Voight had him in interrogation. "He talking?" Leah asked.

"Nope" Al replied. "Hasn't even said a word."

"Voight will get him talking though." Erin replied.

"Let's hope so" Aaliyah replied. "I'm going to the restroom" Leah declared, while walking to the ladies room. Once the door was closed and locked behind her. Leah pulled out a flask that was in her jacket pocket. Unscrewing the top and tilting the bottle in her mouth was a release itself. Feeling the liquid go down her throat was a feeling that she couldn't describe just pure euphoria.

Closing the flask, she put it back in her jacket pocket, and popped a piece of gum in her mouth; so no one would smell the alcohol on her breath.

She flushed the toilet, and went over to the sink to wash her hands. Locking eyes with herself in the mirror. _It was just a little bit, it's not like I drank the whole thing. Just a sip. _She shook her head at the dumb excuse she made for herself just so she could have a drink. _You're just like your parents. _Aaliyah shook her head again. _No I'm not. I'm doing something with my life. They never did. _

_You're a drunk. _

"I'm not" Leah whispered and unlocked the bathroom door and stepped out.

_July 16, 1991_

_The warm, sunny air filled the bedroom; cascading just the right amount of sunlight into the room, where it's not too bright to where it's uncomfortable and you have to squint your eyes. _

_Turning the next page of her book, that her mother had when she was kid. The book itself was good as it was in Dutch. _

_However reading time was quickly interrupted when her two year old sister waddled into the room. "Sissy!" She chirped happily and came running over to her on her short, stubby legs. _

"_Come pway wiff me." Lotte said with excitement. Smiling Leah put her book down on and jumped off the window seat she was reading in. _

"_Okay, what do you want to play?" Leah asked. _

"_I wanna go see horsies"_

"_Did someone say they wanted to go see horses!" Their father said sticking his head into Aaliyah's room. _

"_Yeah!" Charlotte yelled jumping up and down while clapping her hands. Her dirty blonde hair going in all sorts of directions. _

"_Okay then, girls get ready cause I have a surprise for y'all"_

"_Okay" Leah said _

"_Yay!" _

"Hey Voight said we're going to hold Carlos in holding for the night. So we can go home." Al said

"Alright" Leah said.

"Hey Sawyer, I'll meet you at Molly's"

"Yeah sounds good" she said.

Later that night Leah met Antonio at Molly's. "So here we are chasing this guy for like ten minutes and then Sawyer not even slowing down! I'm telling you that girl is fast!"

"Am I late?" Leah asked Dawson who was already at the bar surrounded by the Chicago Fire department.

"And here she is now!"

Everyone started clapping for Leah when she walked up. "Okay, it was really nothing"

"What" a blonde hair woman said who was bartending along with another woman with brown hair and a man with grey hair.

"Sweetie no one can out run my brother like that" the brunette said.

"Hey, hey I didn't say I was out runned" Dawson said defending himself.

"That's not what I heard" the blonde woman said. "I'm Shay" she said sticking out her hand. "Leah" she replied shaking her hand.

"Oh and I'm Gabby. Antonio's sister" and Leah shook her hand as well "and we're the paramedics at firehouse 51." She said gesturing to herself and Shay.

Leah nodded her head and took a seat next to Dawson at the bar. "And what can I get the fastest runner here today?" Shay asked winking at Leah.

Aaliyah smiled "I'll just have a beer"

"One beer for the hot girl coming right up" Shay said, making Aaliyah's cheeks burn a little at the compliment.

A few seconds later a glass of beer was placed in front of Aaliyah. "Thanks"

"Is this your first time coming here? Because I've never seen you around before."

"Yeah it's my first time" Leah replied to Shay's question. Taking a sip of her beer Shay asked another question "I'm sorry I just have to ask but are you gay?" Aaliyah's eyes opened real big for a second before almost coughing on the beer.

Leah set the glass down before answering "you are half right"

"Oh my god so you're bisexual"

Leah nodded her head _yes _"oh thank god cause I'm gay" Shay declared. Leah smiled. The truth is Aaliyah's really only had one girlfriend, but that was a long time ago. She's thought some girls were cute or whatever but since she's been in Chicago, she's actually not had some serious relations. Including guys as well. She's slept with them on the occasional one night stand, but that has rarely happened. Twice. It only happened twice.

_Aaliyah put her pale, blonde hair into two braids. The braids coming down past her shoulders. _

"_Sissy can you do my haiw now?" Lotte complained impatiently. "You have to do it how mommy does it." _

"_I know" Leah replied. Their mom is always out of town in Europe every summer. She leaves in June and doesn't come back till the end of August. _

_Leah grabbed Charlotte's hair brush from her hand and started to lightly brush her sister's hair. She had to brush lightly since she's a tender head. _

_Leah French braided her hair into two braids like hers. Their mom had taught Leah to braid hair, in case she wasn't here to do Charlotte's hair. _

_Lotte loved getting her hair braided. Loved. Adding the two rubber bands Leah declared that she was done. _

"_You didn't put the wibbons in it" Lotte said, holding up two light, pink ribbons. Aaliyah sighed and took the ribbons from her sister's hand. _

_Tying the last bow "done" Leah declared, hoping she didn't miss anything. Lotte hopped off the bed and ran into the bathroom to admire her new hair. "I love it!" She yelled from the bathroom. _

_The girls went downstairs to where their daddy was waiting. "We're ready" Aaliyah said as she swung her book bag over her shoulder. _

"_Woah woah woah darling" Ron said as he took the book bag off her shoulder and set it down on the floor. "You won't be needing this today"_

"_Why not"_

"_You won't need to be reading where we're going"_

Many drinks later Leah was laughing with Shay, way too drunk for a work night. "Hey Leah maybe we should get you home since it's still a work night for you." Shay said pulling Leah off the stool.

"okayyy" she slurred.

Antonio had given Shay the address of Leah's house. Shay looked over at Aaliyah who had her head against the window of the car. Her eyes closed.

When shay got to Leah's condo she gently shook her shoulder. "Hey Leah we're here"

Aaliyah grumbled "w-what?"

"We're here" Shay said again "I'm going to help you up. Okay"

Shay got out of the car and onto the the other side to help Leah get out. "Come on"

The loud, blaring noise caused Leah to groan as she opened her eyes. Which was a mistake as the bright sunlight burned her eyes. _Must've forgotten to close the curtains. _

The loud noise wasn't stopping and it took her a second to realize it was her phone. Blindly looking for it on the nightstand by knocking over a few things with her arm, her fingers finally grabbed a hold of the device. Swiping answer she pulled it to her ear. "Sawyer" she grumbled.

"Leah where the hell are you!" Erin yelled, making Leah pull the phone away from her ear a bit.

"W-what? What do you mean?"

"You were supposed to be here an hour ago!"

"Shit" Leah cursed as she looked over at her alarm which read seven am. "I'm on my way" Leah said as she hung up the phone.

The pounding headache was nearly unbearable. _How much did I drink? Who even brought me home? _Shaking her head she stepped into the cold shower. The cold immediately brought more alertness to her.

Scrubbing down her body and hair. Hoping to stop the dulling ache in her head. _Why? Why do you do this to yourself? _She thought because she really wanted to know. _Why do I always make stupid decisions? _

she sighed and turned off the water. Opening the shower curtain she grabbed her towel and wiped her face and arms before putting the towel on her head. Grabbing the second towel she wrapped it around her shivering body.

Leah immediately went for the medicine cabinet and grabbed the Advil bottle for her headache. Swallowing the two pills with water she set the glass down on the counter.

The reflection of herself in the mirror didn't look as bad as she thought. _Maybe the shower helped. _She looked clean besides the dark bags under her big, blue eyes; which didn't look that blue currently, more like a grey now. Aaliyah felt like that happened when she feels like shit. Shaking her head at herself thinking her eyes change color when she feels like shit. _Come on Aaliyah it's probably your brain playing tricks on you. _

"Sorry, I overslept" Leah said out of breath rushing into the squad room.

"yet you had time to make a smoothie" Al said, gesturing to the drink in her hand.

Leah looked down at the smoothie "Umm...yeah it helps with headaches…"

Al looked at her, almost like he knew what happened last night. But he didn't and that was what was important. Is that he didn't know.

Sitting down at her desk, Erin gave her a _pity _look. _I don't want peoples pity. _Sighing she pulled out the file of the current case they were working on. "Has Carlos Martinez said anything yet?" Leah asked.

"Yes but not anything about the case he just said that he wasn't going to talk to us" Halstead said. "But Voight is down there in the cage with him so...we might get something."

_The cage. _Where laws apparently don't exist. No one really goes down in the cage with Voight, well maybe Al or Dawson. Leah has never went down there but she knows what happens.

Leah continued to look into the file on Carlos Martinez, but the words on the file were jumbling together and becoming unfocused. Shutting her eyes tight to make the feeling stop, she opened her eyes again and the words were now focused.

She rested her head into her hand so she wouldn't have to hold up her head as just doing that was unbearable. _Water. I need to drink water. _The reasonable part of her brain said; but the unreasonable part of her brain said _just take a sip, it will take the edge off. Your head won't hurt anymore. _

_One sip...won't hurt…_

_That's a MISTAKE. You CAN'T do it!_

_But one sip...it's just one…_

_Alright fine one sip, no more, and no less. _

"I have to use the restroom" Leah said standing up from her desk. Walking to the bathroom she closed and locked the door behind her. She pulled the flask out of her jacket pocket.

Unscrewing the lid she poured the liquid in her mouth. Feeling a new wave of euphoria hit her. She didn't feel stressed at the moment, instead she felt relaxed. Calm. At peace.

Putting the flask back into her jacket pocket, she pulled out a pack of gum and stuck a piece into her mouth. The mint gum never tasted good after she had a drink. The gum and the alcohol still on her tongue did not reconcile with each other.

Flushing the toilet she turned on the sink to cool water and washed her hands. The cool water on her hands woke her up a bit more. Turning off the sink, she grabbed a paper towel and walked out the bathroom door.

_Daddy's truck always smelled like cigars. It was never a pleasant smell, especially when it was ninety something degrees outside in Georgia. _

_The wind was blowing Aaliyah's braids behind her as her dad had rolled the windows down; knowing his daughters did not like the smell of his truck that he was so used to smelling. _

"_Daddy awe we almost thewe?" Lotte asked._

"_Almost sugarplum" he answered. _

_A few minutes later the truck pulled into a dirt parking lot with other vehicles. "Alright munchkins we're here" Ron said putting the truck in park and taking out the keys. _

_The girls hopped out of the truck and landed in the soft dirt. "Alright girls" Ron spoke up. "Do you see those stables over there?" He asked pointing to the horse stables a few yards away. _

_The girls nodded their heads. "Alright I want you to walk over there and pet the horses. Don't let anyone see you, okay?"_

"_Okey doke" Leah said _

"_Yay!" Lotte said _

"_I'll come and get y'all when the race is over" Ron said "and Aaliyah" Leah turned around and looked at her dad in the eyes. His hazel eyes were serious, so she knew she had to listen up. "Take care of your sister"_

"_I will"_

"_Alright go, I'll see y'all later" Ron said walking away in another direction than the direction they're heading. Grabbing Lotte's hand, she walked with her sister towards the stables. _

_They could hear the horses winnies. Their smiles grew even larger the closer they approached. _

_By now they could see the horses all lined up in the stalls. The girls were small enough to where they could fit through the back. The stall that they had snuck into had a white horse with black spots. _

"_Hi horsie" Lotte said very excitedly as she went to pet the horse's leg. Leah pet the horses lower abdomen as she wasn't very tall either. "Leah, Leah, lift me up"_

_Aaliyah picked up her sister and put her over her shoulders. She walked over the horses face and went to pet it. "Ha it's like a cow with its black spots" Lotte said. _

"_Or a Dalmatian" Leah replied_

"_What's a Dalmatian?" Lotte asked _

"_It's a type of dog that has black spots"_

Leah stepped out of the bathroom and took a seat back at her desk just as Voight walked into the room. "One of the addresses they stay at is a house, 2183 Berk Avenue" Voight said "Sawyer you're with me, we're gonna check out this house"

"Yes sir" Aaliyah said standing up out of her chair and following Voight out.

They walked downstairs and out the door. Voight got into the driver's seat of the car and Aaliyah took the passenger seat.

"Where were you this morning?" Voight asked.

"I overslept. I forget to set my alarm" Aaliyah replied. She wasn't lying it was the truth. That was what had happened but she just wasn't going to say why she had forgotten to set her alarm.

"Why did you forget to set your alarm?" Voight pressed

"I dunno" Leah shrugged "tired I guess"

"You know if I find out you're hiding something from me, you can consider yourself fired" Voight said.

Leah gulped. She wasn't hiding anything. _Everything is under control. _

"If you have a problem, the best thing to do is to come clean about it" Voight said.

Aaliyah thought for a minute. _If you tell him yourself the consequence will be less. Of course there will still be a consequence, there's no getting out of that. It would be worse if he found out himself, because then I would be fired and that would be it. You would have nothing. Just like your disgusting parents. _

Deciding it would be best to speak up sooner rather than later, Leah went to speak, right as she went to open her mouth to say something Voight beat her to it.

"You're a good detective Aaliyah, I don't want to end your career"

Aaliyah nodded her head "umm I'll talk to you when the case is over" she said

"Alright I'm gonna hold you to that"

Leah silently nodded her head. Tears were coming to the surface, threatening to spill; but with a deep breath and shutting her eyes tight for a second longer than normal, the tears were gone when she opened her eyes again. Just like that.

She learned that trick for herself long ago as she didn't want to cry in front of them. It only would make the situation worse.

"_Leah the horse is so pretty" Lotte said, still on her sister's shoulders. The girls had been in the horse stables for a while now. Aaliyah was becoming a bit unsure as she didn't know when the jockeys would be coming back to mount their horses for the horse race. _

"_Lotte, we should go now because someone is going to be here any minute" Leah said with worry in her voice. _

"_But I don't want to go!" Charlotte cried getting off her sister's shoulders. _

"_Charlotte we have to" Aaliyah said raising her voice "come on" she said pulling her sister along and out of the stables. _

"_Nooooo!" Charlotte yelled kicking and thrashing her legs, while Leah tried to pull her along._

"_I wanna see the horsie!" Charlotte cried with tears streaming down her face. "I hate you!" She yelled. _

_It felt like someone had knocked the wind out of Aaliyah when Lotte said that. An average two year old would not know of the word hate but she did. Only because their parents fought a lot. But all of the time it was their mother that screamed that she hated their father. _

_Aaliyah loves her little sister, even if they sometimes didn't get along. She knew deep down that her sister loves her and that she loves her back. _

"_Charlotte Grace Sawyer!" Aaliyah yelled. Charlotte stopped crying and thrashing at the use of her full name. "You need to stop right now!"_

_Charlotte looked at her sister, her hazel eyes all red and swimming with tears. "Take a deep breath" Aaliyah instructed and took a deep breath herself. Lotte did the same and took a deep breath. _

"_We can ask daddy to see if we can see the horses another time" Aaliyah said. _

_Charlotte nodded her head. "And Charlotte" Leah started "we never tell each other that we hate each other" _

"_But mommy says-"_

"_I know what mommy says but that doesn't make it okay" _

_Lotte nodded her head. "Okay sissy" _

Voight pulled up a few blocks away from the house they were supposed to go to. Leah opened her door and stepped out of the car.

The first thing she noticed was that the neighborhood was abnormally quiet. Almost too quiet. Sure the neighborhood was sketchy but, normally there would still be some noise.

"Do think it's too quiet?" Leah asked Voight as they walked to the house.

Voight turned around to look at her just as a gun sounded. A piercing pain went through Aaliyah's shoulder.

Blood splatter went everywhere. The red liquid hitting Voight. Aaliyah was on the ground, holding her hands where she was shot.

Voight was quick though, taking off his jacket and putting pressure on the wound. "Ahhhh" Leah groaned in pain.

"It's okay, we're gonna get you help. Hang in there"

Increasing the pressure on the wound, the pain was unbearable, "ahhhhh" more groans and cries escaped her lips.

Voight pulled out his radio. "10 13, 10 13, we have an officer shot!" Voight yelled. Leah started to close her eyes, the pain becoming more unbearable. "No, no, come on Aaliyah stay with me"

Voight looked around. Hearing an ambulance in the distance. "Come on, come on" he muttered as he kept pressing down on the wound with his jacket.

The sirens got louder and louder.

Soon ambulance 51 came into view and two paramedics stepped out of the ambulance.

Shay and Gabby ran over to her, Shay with the backboard and Gabby with the gurney.

"Leah Leah can you hear me?" Shay asked crouching down next to her. Only a groan came from Aaliyah.

"Looks like the bullet went through the soft tissue in her shoulder" Gabby said.

"Alright Leah we're gonna get you to a hospital okay" Shay said, while they put her on the backboard and onto the gurney, rolling her into the ambulance.

_The girls waited by their father by his old, brown truck, and soon their father emerged from the crowd of people exiting the horse race. He wore a huge grin and a handful of cash. _

"_Look Princess'" he said holding out the cash in front of them. It was definitely a lot. "Do y'all want to go get ice cream?" _

"_Yeah!" the girls cheered and jumped into the truck. _

_Their father took them to an ice cream place in town that they went to on occasions. It was mainly special occasions or sometimes like this when their father wins a lot of money; he'll usually take the girls out somewhere. _

_Once they all got out of the car Lotte immediately ran to the door to the ice cream parlor. _

_Ron opened the door for his two daughters, Lotte immediately ran inside while Aaliyah stuck by her father's side. _

"_Alright girls take your pick" Ron said while coming up to the counter. _

"_Mr. Sawyer how are doin?" Asked a woman named Mrs. Bailey. She's a really nice lady. Since it's a small town everyone knows everyone. _

"_I'm doin good" Ron replied. "Girls what do you want?"_

"_I want an ice cream cone with mint chocolate chip and cookies n' cream" Aaliyah said _

"_I want stwawbewwy and chocolate ice cweam cone" Lotte said _

"_Alrighty one mint chocolate chip and cookies n' cream cone coming up and a strawberry and chocolate cone as well. That will be $3.50" _

Voight sat out in the hallway of the hospital pacing back and forth replaying the last events that happened twenty minutes ago. _What could've he done differently? How did he not see it coming? _The questions haunted him the more he thought of them.

Shaking his head slightly to clear his head he saw Erin and Al walking up to him. "What happened?" Erin asked "Leah was shot!?"

"Yeah the sons of bitches must've seen us coming" Voight replied hastily.

"Is she okay?" Al asked

"Yeah they're doing some blood tests on her now" Voight replied "the bullet hit her muscle and came out her upper back. There's no permanent damage."

Erin nodded her head processing the new information Voight had just given her. "Do we know what gun it was fired from?" Erin asked

"Yeah CSU recovered a forty-five caliber, full metal jacket slugged from the sidewalk. Pancaked, won't get much from ballistics" Voight replied

"Forty-five?" Al said "that's long range for a pistol"

"One bullet, rooftop sniper. This was a targeted hit, they knew we were coming" Voight said putting his hands on his hips. "Alright Al, I want you to go back and have a little talk with Mr. Martinez."

Al nodded his head and left, while a doctor Halstead came out. "Hey Voight, we have something we need to discuss" he said holding a file.

"About what?" Erin asked

"About Detective Sawyer's blood tests" Will replied looking at Erin "alone"

Erin looked unsure "I'm gonna go get a cup of coffee" she said and walked off. Once Erin was gone Will started talking "Detective Sawyer had a blood alcohol level of .04, which is legal but since she's on duty it's…" he trailed off "she could get fired for this"

Voight nodded his head. He knew. He always knew something wasn't quite right with her, he just didn't know what it was. She's a very secretive person. She shared basic information about herself but...nothing else really. It was fine though, Voight respected that because trust is earned; and if she wasn't ready to share something then that's understandable.

Voight sighed "she was going to tell me after work" he said

Will nodded his head "are you sure about that?" He asked

"Yeah, I'm positive. We were talking about it in the car right before she got shot."

Will looked less unsure than he was five seconds ago, but that still didn't ease the situation. "Look…" Voight started "I know it's your job to write these things down but, can I ask you to look away for just this once"

Dr. Halstead looked like Voight had just ask him to commit a murder. "She's a good detective. I don't want to end her career. She needs help, she doesn't need to be fired."

Will nodded his head. "Okay, I get it" he said "but if it happens again-"

"It won't" Voight clarified

"Okay, well she's in room 103 down the hall, she's also drugged up on morphine to help mask the pain"

"Okay thank you"

Will nodded his head and walked off, less than a second later Erin walked up "what was that about?" She asked

"Aaliyah"

"I know that but what about Aaliyah"

"That she's an alcoholic"

"What!?" Erin said shocked "I mean I figured that she had some issues but…"

Voight nodded "the two of you are more alike than you think" he said

"Is that why you're letting her stay?" Erin asked

"Who says I'm letting her stay"

Erin chuckled "because I know you and you would let her stay"

Voight smiled "yes I'm letting her stay because, she's a damn good cop"

Erin smiled "thank god"

"I'm gonna go see her know" Voight said walking in the direction of her room. "I'll go with you" Erin said trailing behind.

When they opened the door a drugged up Aaliyah smiled at them with a big goofy smile "Erin, Hank"

"They got you on that happy stuff" Erin said

"How are you doing?" Voight asked

"It doesn't hurt" Leah said gesturing to her wounded shoulder with her her good hand.

"Yeah it went straight through and through" Voight said

"Through and through" Aaliyah said still with a big smile on her face "just through and through the…" she trailed off with a dazed look on her face. Confused to the world around her.

Erin and Voight smiled at her as she was as high as a kite. "Did you...did you get the guy that shot me?" She asked, the smile disappearing from her face.

The look Voight and Erin gave must've been enough to tell her that they didn't get the guy that shot her. With a deep breath Aaliyah was out again.

"Come on we need to head back to the precinct so we can find the S.O.B's that shot her" Voight said.

_June 4, 1995_

_Aaliyah looked at herself in the mirror. The bruises decorated her body along with red cuts. She was in a lot of pain but there was nothing anyone could do about it. _

_Well that's a lie. Her mother could do something about it, but she's the one who dragged her into this mess to begin with. _

_Aaliyah wanted to cry, but she can't. She can't show any weakness or she might not live to see another day. _

_She closed her eyes to keep the tears from falling but as soon as she did the images of what happened yesterday flashed through her eyes. _

_Rough hands all over her. Not being able to go anywhere. Stuck. She was stuck. She still is stuck._

_Opening her eyes again only to make eye contact with herself in the mirror. Her big, blue eyes were glassy. Glistening in the bathroom light. A lump formed in the back of her throat, making it almost impossible to breathe. It felt like she was choking. _

_Trying to swallow the feeling down did nothing but let a few tears escape. Wiping the tears away hastily with her hand, she crouched down against the wall in the corner of the bathroom. Her knees to her chest. _

_A wave of nausea coursed through her, making the pain she was already in more unbearable. Breathe. Just breathe. She told herself, to try and make her calm down. _

_She attempted to take a deep breath only to feel like she couldn't. Like the air wasn't going all the way in. She's drowning, she can't breathe. _

_The tears were now streaming down her face silently, there was no use wiping them away. There were too many of them. _

_I just want to go home, she thought. I just want to be back in Georgia with my sister and Amanda. I don't even want to be in Europe anymore._

"_Help" she whispered, it was barely even audible, so no one could even hear it. But the people she needed to hear it were three thousand miles away. An ocean away. _

_The thought only caused more tears to flow. Aaliyah put her hand over her mouth to choke back a sob that was about to escape her lips. _

_There was no getting out of this. She is surrounded by evil people who only care about themselves. She is nothing to them._

_Looking down at her feet she started playing with her toes. Her nails were long and she needed to cut them. Aaliyah started picking at her toes, getting all the fuzz from her socks out of the crevices. _

_Just doing this made her feel a bit better as her mind was distracted by something else. _

_Looking up at the cabinet in front of her, she realized that the cabinet was slightly ajar. Reaching out her hand she opened the cabinet door all the way. _

_Only the basic necessities were in there; toilet paper, cleaning supplies, cups, gloves. But something shiny caught her eye. Reaching in and pulling out the shiny thing, Aaliyah realized it was a flask. She feel the liquid sloshing around as she pulled it out. _

_Unscrewing the bottle, Aaliyah took a sip. It burned her throat. She gagged as the alcohol tried to come back up, she swallowed to push it down. _

_A knock on the door made her jump slightly. "Shaina? Are you in there? You've been in there for a while now?"_

_Aaliyah opened her mouth to talk, but no sound came out. She tried again "yeah, I'm fine" she said, that was quieter than her normal talking voice. _

_She slid on her long sleeved grey shirt back over her purple, and blue abdomen; and her jeans over slim, bruised legs. _

_Unlocking the bathroom door, made her just want to pass out as she didn't want to be here. 'You have to' she thought. She knew she had to, she just really did not want to. _

_She pushed open the bathroom door to reveal the man that brought her here to this mansion house. His blue eyes bore into her "there you are I was worried about you Shaina" he said smiling while patting her head. Aaliyah got a clear view of his four leaved clover tattoo on his wrist. It was identical to her mother's tattoo. _

"_Shaina, I made you snack, it's in the kitchen"_

'_That's not my name. And it never will be.'_

Dr. Halstead walked into the room where Aaliyah layed peacefully but, with a dull ache in her shoulder.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked

"I just want to leave the hospital" Aaliyah replied dully.

"Well you are free to go, but you need to take it slow detective"

Aaliyah rolled her eyes slightly. _Taking things slow _was not exactly in her nature. "Okay"

"We have prescribed medication for the pain, you'll just have to pick it up at your pharmacy and you'll have to go to psychical therapy." Dr. Halstead said

Leah nodded her head understanding that these are things she must do in order to get better faster.

"Here are your discharge papers" Dr. Halstead said handing her a clipboard "I'll just need you to sign here" he said pointing at the signature slot.

Luckily for Aaliyah, she's left handed and the bullet hit her in her shoulder, so she shouldn't have a problem with paperwork.

As soon as she finished signing it, Voight entered the room. "Hey, I'm going to take you home." He said

"Okay" Leah replied

The car drive ride to her place was the longest, most awkward ride. You could probably cut the tension with a knife. "Alright Aaliyah listen up, and listen good."

Aaliyah took her eyes off the car window and turned her direction to Voight. "I know that you're an alcoholic"

It felt like the wind had been knocked out of her, her chest tightened and a knot formed in her stomach. _Am I going to get fired? This is it. My career is over, because I have a stupid problem. You are so disgusting Aaliyah!_

She was right. She is disgusting. Aaliyah took a deep breath before talking. _Don't beg for your job, you don't deserve it. Just take the responsibility for your actions. _

"You're right. I am an alcoholic." It felt weird saying it out loud for the first time. Because for the first time, she actually acknowledged that she had a problem. It made her feel a bit better but at the same time it made her feel so much worse, because she knew she wouldn't get to keep her job after this.

"That's the first step" Voight said "acknowledging that you have a problem"

Leah nodded her head slightly. Her eyes facing forward as she couldn't look Voight in the eye. "Look, you're not the only one who has battled with past demons. Everyone has them."

Leah still kept her eyes on the road. "You're a good detective, I'm not going to end your career. I'm going to get you help"

Aaliyah looked over at Voight. Relief flooding through her and silently thanking him. "But if it happens again, you're out of here" Aaliyah nodded her head understanding, "thank you sir"

Voight nodded his head right before they turned into a parking spot of her condo.

When inside the safety of her condo, Voight handed Aaliyah a flyer for AA meetings. Aaliyah took the pink flyer that had a bunch of dates, times and places for the meetings.

"Thank you"

Voight nodded his head. "And if you ever feel like you need to drink, you call me. Day or night"

"I will"

"And I'll pick you up at six for your first meeting" Voight said.

"Okay, but what about the case"

"The team can manage without us for a little bit"

Leah nodded her head slightly. She looked around in her condo feeling a bit awkward just standing there with Voight staring at her.

He then went into her laundry room. A few seconds passed when he came out with a trash bag. He opened up her cabinets in the kitchen tossing out all the alcohol, he then opened her fridge and tossed out all her beers.

Aaliyah just stood there, in the middle of her living room unsure of what to do. "Alright, where do you keep your other alcohol?" Voight asked

Aaliyah pointed towards her bedroom. Voight made his way in there again opening up all her drawers. Which was a bit awkward as one drawer was only dedicated to her bras and panties.

Voight had found all her flasks. Which she had no doubt that he would. "Alright, is that it"

Leah nodded her head _yes_. "Okay because if I find out your lying to me consider yourself fired"

"I'm not" Aaliyah whispered. It was true, she really did not have any alcohol left that was not already in that bag.

"Okay" Voight said "I'll pick you at six" he said and walked passed her with the bag alcohol. She could hear all the bottles clinking together and the last remaining liquid that was left in them.

Her door slammed closed making her jump a little bit. The condo was silent. The silence was deafening. She couldn't even believed that, that had just happened. This was it. She is going to get sober after eleven years of being an alcoholic. Was it even possible for her to actually get sober? But the real question was...could she actually do it?

She sat down on her bed and pulled out her phone. Calling a number that always seemed to be there for her no matter what.

"Amanda, Hey"

"Leah! How are you?"

_How was you? _The question ranged through her head. _How do I feel? I'm not sure. _

"Umm...I'm not sure actually"

"Why? Are you okay? What happened?" Amanda said asking a bunch of questions as she didn't know what was going on with her long time best friend.

"Well I got shot-"

"What! When? Why didn't you call me sooner!"

"Well it was earlier today and I didn't want to call you because I was a little preoccupied"

"Oh I'm so sorry, are you okay? Where were you spot?"

"Umm it doesn't really hurt that bad right now, I was shot through my right shoulder..."

"But there's something else" Amanda said as she could always tell when there was something else with her friend and Aaliyah could do the same. It was literally impossible for them to keep secrets from each other. But Aaliyah could keep secrets from Amanda, as there was one that she was taking to the grave. She would never tell another living soul.

"Umm they took my blood and there was alcohol in it. I was almost fired but Voight decided to help me instead,which I'm forever grateful and now he's going to pick me up in a few hours for my first AA meeting."

"Wow, I mean that's kind of a blessing in disguise because now you can get the help you need. It's a good thing Aaliyah."

"Yeah. But what about your gambling?" Amanda's gambling was a touchy subject but maybe since Aaliyah's getting the help she needs maybe Amanda will too.

"I don't have a gambling problem." Amanda said flatly

"But...you...umm…." Leah mumbled as she didn't know what to say to her friend. Sure, her gambling problem wasn't terrible as it could be but it could get worse as time goes on.

"I guess" Leah said meaning to Amanda's apparent non-existent gambling problem. "Umm anyway I have to go. Talk to you later" Leah said

"Okay bye" Amanda said and Aaliyah hung up.

Setting her phone down on the nightstand, Aaliyah layed back on her pillows and closed her eyes; going back through the day. _I was shot. My boss found out I'm an alcoholic. I'm going to an AA meeting. My friend doesn't think she has a problem but she does. _One of those is a lot to take in for one person but, for some reason all of Aaliyah's problems like to hit her all at once.

_I need to call my sister, and tell her what has happened. _Leah thought, _I'll do it tomorrow. _

The dull ache in her shoulder made it harder for her to keep her eyes closed. It hurt to just lay down but, she's tired. Taking in a deep breath she tried to let the tendrils of sleep pull her under.

A loud knock jolted Aaliyah out of sleep. Sitting up too quickly caused a stabbing pain to her shoulder "shit" she cursed getting up out of bed. She must have fallen asleep fully clothed, cause she still had her shoes on and everything.

Her hair had just got caught in the sling for her shoulder. Looking through the peephole Aaliyah saw Voight looking down at his watch.

Opening the door Voight smiled "you ready? Let's go" he said

"Oh okay" Aaliyah said while Voight was pulled her out the door. She turned around and locked it before they left.

The awkward silence in the car kind of got her as she realized she couldn't play or pick at her hands since she's only got one good one. "The meeting is at a church, and it's and hour and a half"

"Okay" Leah said nodding her head. _You don't have to talk for the first one just make sure you talk at maybe the second or third and so on. _Leah thought to herself, knowing what takes place at these kind of things.

Voight pulled into a parking spot at the church; he even opened the door for her as she only had one good arm. Leah and Voight walked up the stairs and the more they walked up closer to the door, the nervous pit in her stomach continued to grow with fear and anxiety.

Once they stepped foot in the church it was definitely weird for Aaliyah. She hasn't stepped foot into a church since she was a child, well that's not true she's had to go into churches to talk with potential suspects. But this was a bit different.

They walked down a corridor that had a bunch of painting of Jesus and what not, took another turn down another hallway until they entered a room.

There were all kinds of people. It looked like business people, people who worked from construction who have not yet been home yet as they still were in their work clothes. Almost everyone was, because they came here right after work.

Some of the people were standing or getting coffee others were chatting with each other. And the rest were seated in a chair that was arranged in a circle.

"All right you did the part, now it's the easy part." Voight said

Leah softly smiled and nodded. She made her way to the people who had the same illness as her. She took a deep breath, her body relaxing slightly as she sat down in one of the chairs. _This is it. I am going to get better. _


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three _

_Bloom_

_**August 20, 2006**_

"Happy Birthday to Aaliyah! Happy birthday to you!" Everyone sang as Leah sat there awkwardly in her chair. It's been twenty two years, and she still hasn't figured out what you're supposed to do when people sing happy birthday to her.

Once the birthday song was finished, Aaliyah blew out the golden candles on the cake. The cake had white frosting, with Oreos sprinkling the top of the cake along with the rim of it as well.

"What did you wish for?" Lotte asked excitedly

Leah rolled her eyes at the stupid question her sister asked every year, and every time she says the same thing. "If I told you then it wouldn't come true"

"Right" Lotte laughed. The truth is, is that she wished for happiness for herself and for her sister, and that her sister graduates college of course.

"Since you're the birthday girl, I'll cut the cake" Charlotte said grabbing the cake cutting knife. Lotte cut the cake into equal pieces for everyone, the pieces were all very symmetrical; and Leah couldn't help but be proud of her cooking and baking skills that her sister learned from her.

"And the birthday girl gets a piece first" Lotte said placing a piece of cookies n' cream cake in front of Aaliyah. Leah immediately grabbed a fork and began to chow down on the cake in front her.

Amanda sat down next to Aaliyah "Happy twenty second birthday my dear". Leah smiled at Amanda's comment. "How does it feel to be twenty two?" She asked

Leah shrugged "same as I felt as I was twenty one"

"You say that every year" Amanda deadpanned

"And I feel the same, every year" Aaliyah replied. "You have to ask me a bigger age difference like I was ten and now I'm twenty two. That would be a different because I didn't have boobs and now I do. I didn't have a period and now I do"

Amanda rolled her eyes at her friends answer. "Whatever" Amanda mumbled taking a bite out of her piece of cake.

Lotte sat down on the other side of Aaliyah at the table, "you have a great turnout this year sister"

Leah looked up from her cake and looked around the room. _She was right, this is definitely the most amount of people she's ever had at her birthday party. _Voight and the team were there, which was what made it the most amount of people she's invited, and then of course her sister and Amanda. Unfortunately Amanda's sister Kim has failed to show again. But it's not like it's the first time she hasn't showed. She's probably out drug dealing or getting drugs somewhere; doing what Kim does best, ruining everyone's lives.

And then Shay and Gabby came, which was surprising, well not Gabby coming because she is Antonio's sister. But Shay coming was a bit of a surprise. It wasn't like Aaliyah minded, she did fancy Shay a bit; but wasn't sure if it was worth pursuing.

Finally after everyone was done eating cake it was time for Leah to open her presents. "Guys you don't have to watch me open presents, I'm not ten" Aaliyah said.

"Well we want to see what everyone got you" Erin said "It's a thing that you do you know"

Leah sighed and sat down on the couch and grabbed a present in front of her that was on the brown coffee table. Looking at the card she saw it was from Ruzek. She almost wanted to laugh now because she knew he probably got her a gag gift, since that has been his reputation since he first invited himself the first time.

Aaliyah removed the pink tissue paper from the glittery green gift bag. Aaliyah pulled out a black t-shirt, lifting it up so the front faced her, Aaliyah rolled her eyes and chuckled a bit.

"Thank you Adam for the _I heart dick _shirt" Leah said dryly, because that's exactly what the shirt said in big white letters with an actual red heart.

"Really Ruzek" Platt said with her arms folded across her chest, clearly not amused with the _I heart dick _shirt.

The little bit of tension was cleared when Aaliyah went to go grab another gift for her to open.

_**August 20, 1985**_

_The cool summer air in Amsterdam flowed in the room through the open window, just barely a crack. A baby laid in her mother's arms as she gently rocked the baby, singing a soft lullaby._

_Bright, blue, sapphire eyes opened from the once sleeping baby. Her golden fuzz of hair just barely noticeable, as it was so light. "How is she?" Ron asked_

_Alice hummed lightly "good" _

"_She's a beauty" Ron said, his voice full of admiration for his newborn daughter. Ron had always wanted kids. He loves kids, but he did have to convince his wife to have children. She did not want to at first, but after her trip to Europe; she came back and told him that she wanted kids and then less than a week later, Alice said she was pregnant. _

"_Ron, do you think you can go get me some food?" Alice asked. Ron nodded his head "of course I'll go get you food, my darling wife" he said and left the hospital room._

_As soon as Ron was out of sight, another man slipped through the room. His light dirty, blonde hair with strands of grey, standing out in the light. _

"_How is she?" He whispered_

"_Healthy" Alice replied "beautiful"_

_The man smiled his blue eyes glowing. "She has your eyes" Alice said looking down at the now sleeping baby; and then looking back up at the man. _

"_What are you going to name her?" Alice asked_

_The man took in a deep breath "Shaina Lauren" he said. Alice smiled "that's a pretty name"_

"_And she'll take your last name, so she can't get hurt if anyone finds out" he said. _

_Alice nodded her head, looking down at the baby. "Okay" she said looking back up again, only to see that her lover had left, disappeared into the night. _

After Aaliyah opened her presents, everyone was starting to mingle around her. Amanda was taking to Erin, Voight was taking to Platt, Gabby was talking to Lotte. Leah felt a dip in the couch, she looked to her right and saw Shay. "Hey" Leah said.

"Hello" Shay replied with a smile. Aaliyah wasn't sure what to say, so she started picking at her nails. It was a bad habit, she's always done it when she's anxious. The awkward silence was slowly killing her. _God Aaliyah, just say something that's not stupid or nerdy. No one likes that. _

Aaliyah grabbed her can of Sprite and took a gulp, slowing her nerves down. "Thanks for coming to my party."

"You're welcome, I mean I know I wasn't exactly invited but, when has that stopped me." Shay laughed, Aaliyah chuckled with her.

"So" Shay said, turning her body on the couch to face Leah. "I need to give you my other part of my birthday present"

"Which is…?"

"I want you to go out with me" Shay said

Aaliyah wasn't sure she heard that right. _Go out? Does that mean like a date? Or be my girlfriend? Or both? Or...just a hangout with friends!? What does she mean? _Aaliyah has only had one girlfriend in her entire life and that was when she was a teen. They didn't have sex. They never fucked. But this also means she's never been with a woman. She's kissed one, but never been with one psychically.

Leah always wanted her first time with someone special or whatever. She knew it was cliche but...it has been what she always wanted. And even if Shay did not want to have sex tonight or later if she did go out with her. Is Shay the right person she wants for her first time?

But there was also another problem. Aaliyah feared sex. Maybe it was because of the all the years she had been violated. But whatever it was, she feared it. She never actually tried to before, but she knew she was afraid. She can't even fucking touch herself! How on earth can she give someone pleasure and then let them give her pleasure! Sure Aaliyah gives off the vibe that's she's all experienced and what not, but sex is really her worst insecurity. Maybe Shay could help her with that.

"Umm yeah, sure why not" Aaliyah said.

Shay smiled real big. "Really!?"

Again her just saying _really, _made Aaliyah question if she did want to go out with her. _Last chance to back out. But do I really want to? It may not be that bad._

Aaliyah nodded her head _yes _not being able to trust her voice right now. Shay's smile got even bigger like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. She even went as far as to hug Aaliyah. Very tightly.

"Alright I'm going to take you out tomorrow night. That is if we don't have work of course" Shay said.

"Okay" Leah whispered, already starting to doubt her decision on going out with Shay.

Around ten was when everyone left. Leaving Aaliyah, Amanda, and Charlotte. "Hey" Amanda said walking up to Aaliyah and sitting down on the couch next to her. "You okay?" She asked. Aaliyah nodded her head _yes. _"I'm fine" she said.

"You sure? You seem a bit off" Amanda said. Leah thought for a minute, contemplating if she should tell her the truth or not. It was a big deal but at the same time, it wasn't.

"Umm...Shay asked me out" Leah said, deciding to just be out with it.

"Wow!" Lotte said, excitedly. "You've never really had a girlfriend before" Lotte said as she grabbed another piece of cake and sat down one of the sofa chairs Leah had.

Leah shrugged. She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about it.

"Or is this bad?" Amanda asked.

"That's the thing, I don't know!" Leah exclaimed. "I don't know how I feel about it." She said standing up from the couch to pace back and forth. "I mean she's pretty, but I don't think she's the prettiest I've seen I guess. But I don't really think of her romantically. Like I don't feel a connection"

"Okay" Amanda said "let's take a deep breath" and Amanda took a deep breath so Leah could follow along. Aaliyah stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath, letting the fresh oxygen fill her lungs.

"Okay, you know what I think" Amanda said "I think you're afraid to actually date someone. So you always find a reason not to-"

"But I don't feel a connection with her! Aren't you supposed to feel a connection when you date someone!"

Amanda paused before answering "I'm not equipped to answer that question"

"Ugh" Leah groaned shoving her head into her hands.

"Aaliyah, I think you should just go out with her; and if you like her or what you're doing then stay in the relationship. If you don't like it then say '_listen you're a nice girl but I'm not really feeling that connection' _and then break up with her" Lotte said.

"Yeah do that" Amanda said "and you could invite her for girls night tomorrow"

"Oh shit, she's supposed to take me out though" Leah said, remembering her original plans for tomorrow.

"Then invite her to our night out, since you already committed to us first" Lotte said

"And if we get a bad vibe from her, we'll tell you if she's worth perusing or not" Amanda said.

"Okay" Leah said, sitting back down on the couch.

Later that night, blue eyes staring up into darkness, unable to close them. Aaliyah's mind wandered back to the same question over and over again. _Is she really the one for me? _Deep down Aaliyah knew that she was not the one for her. Her gut told her that someone better was to come. Not that Shay was bad but she just wasn't the one.

_**July 16, 1997**_

_Shaina leaned into the warm body next to her in the darkness. It was the only place she felt safe. Her head rested on the rising and falling chest. The steady heartbeat drumming against her ear._

_Fingers gently brushed her hair. Tucking strands behind her ear, before brushing her fingers all the way down. _

_The gentle movement lulling her into sleep. The soft fingers stopped dancing across her hair. _

"_Coralie?" Shaina whispered barely audible_

"_Yes" she whispered_

"_Just wanted to see if you were still awake" Shaina whispered._

_Coralie smiled and brushed Shaina's hair again with her fingers. "Yes I'm still awake" she replied. _

"_What do you think is going to happen tomorrow?" Shaina asked._

"_Don't know, best not to think about it" Coralie said, still continuing to play with the blonde locks. _

"_But what if-" Shaina started_

"_Shaina, just sleep, you need it" _

"_But-"_

"_Shhh. Sleep"_

_With one last exhale of breath, Shaina closed her eyes. Welcoming sleep and the nightmares that come with it. _

Waking up to an alarm going off quietly on her nightstand, Aaliyah reached her arm over to turn off her alarm on her phone. Luckily for her, her phone was on the lowest setting with brightness so it wasn't blinding her at eight in the morning.

Leah set her phone back down and leaned back on her pillows. _What do I have to do today? Morning run, make breakfast...Call Shay, tell her you had other plans and invite her to the girls night out. Go to the girls night out...yeah that's about it._

Her eyes had closed while she was thinking of today's plan. For some reason she always felt so much more comfortable after laying back down from initially waking up. _I'll get up in thirty seconds, _she thought to herself. _One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen…_

Aaliyah started to lose track of which number she was on and dozed back off to sleep. Thoughts of Shay seeping into her dream.

Aaliyah jolted awake abruptly. _Wait what number am I on? _Reaching back over to her nightstand to retrieve her phone, Leah pressed the home button making the basic blue background glow and the time light up. It was eight fifteen. Thirty seconds had come and gone a long time ago.

Leah sat up from her warm, inviting bed and headed towards the bathroom. Gently pushing open the door, she stepped into the restroom. She shivered as she entered, her feet cold from the chilling, tile floor.

Grabbing her yellow brush; Leah brushed through her fair locks. Attempting to brush through all her knots that seemed to form at the base of her neck.

Once her hair was completely brushed out, with its natural waviness. She put it in a ponytail. Then she took off her loose, long sleeved shirt. Revealing her breasts, which Aaliyah thought were pretty okay. B-cup, _not bad_ she thought as her nipples perked up in the cold bathroom.

Leah grabbed her deodorant, her eyes catching sight of her scarred wrists. The white lines horizontal all way up to the crease where her elbow is if she turned her arm. It was the worst thing she had to look at every morning, which is why she normally tried so hard to avoid looking at her wrists ever. Even in the shower, she uses a loofah to wash herself but never looks when she's washing her arms.

After she put on deodorant, she walked out of the bathroom carrying her pajama shirt with her. Aaliyah put her pj shirt on the black bean bag by her bookshelf which was full of books. Leah then also stepped out of her '_butt shorts'_ is what Leah called her pajama shorts because they were so loose her whole ass would be out at times.

She threw her shorts on top of her shirt and went into her closet. Deciding not to turn on the light as the bathroom light and the sun light seeping through the cracks in the curtains was good enough for light.

Aaliyah grabbed her grey workout leggings, unhooking them from the hanger, then putting the hanger in a basket so it can be reused later when she hung up her clothes.

Bunching up the pant leg of the leggings she stepped one foot through; then repeating the process again. She then pulled up her leggings around her long, toned legs.

Once they fit snugly on her, she walked out of the closet and back into her room. Walking over to the white dresser she opened up the drawer on the top left, revealing all her bras. After lifting a few of her sports bras up and down, she found the grey one she was looking for. It matched her leggings.

Sliding it over her chest, Leah walked back into the closet and pulled off a black workout tank top off the hanger. Tossing the hanger aside to the basket she put on her tank top before walking out again.

Again walking over to her dresser she opened a different drawer revealing socks. Picking out a white pair she slipped into the socks. Walking back into the closet, she bent down to her shoe rack and grabbed her black running shoes.

After putting them on, she stood up and walked out; grabbing her phone and earbuds with her.

Leah made she sure she closed the doors gently when she left so she wouldn't wake up Amanda and Charlotte.

Once she was outside her condo building, she took a deep breath of the cool summer morning air. And she took off.

The wind running through her hair, the cool breeze on her face, the way her ponytail bounced while she ran, the music in her ears. It was a feeling that she could never replace with anything. Aaliyah loved running, it was her only healthy escape from reality: well besides from working out.

While she ran, her mind went elsewhere. It also gave her time to think through her problems. For instance right now it was Shay. _Hopefully she won't be offended if I tell her I can't go. But I'll invite her to the girls night out so, it shouldn't be too bad. Maybe she'll have fun. I could also say I already committed to my friends before you asked me out. Yeah I'll say that. _

_I'll tell her—hey Shay, I can't make it to dinner with you tonight because I had forgotten that I made plans with my friend and my sister to have a girls night. But don't worry you can come along—if you want to course. _

_Yup that's what I'll say. _Aaliyah thought to herself turning a corner. Her legs felt fine and she didn't feel her lungs burning, which was good. The music she was currently listening to was one of those songs where you're like _fuck yeah! I'm on fire right now! _

Leah chuckled to herself on her bizarre thoughts. The one thing she was hoping Shay would be is a nerd. Not like over geeky, but likes the little things in books and makes nerd jokes about literature or something that's really interesting and fascinating.

Aaliyah stepped back into her condo at around nine thirty. She was surprised that no one was up. Normally Amanda wakes up around nine and her sister wakes up around nine-fifteen; but the place was silent. Aaliyah herself wasn't a morning person but she knew she had to run today, because they would be out at dusk.

Leah walked quietly to her bedroom, closing the door silently behind her. She walked into the bathroom. For once relieved of its coldness as she was hot and sweaty.

Pulling the shower curtain aside, she turned the knob to turn on her shower. The loud water ran its way through the pipes before coming out of the shower head. _If they weren't awake by now, at least one of them will be. _

Closing the bathroom door. Leah stripped of her sweaty clothes, leaving them on the floor before grabbing her towel mat that she sets down on the floor to step out on when she's done with her shower.

Pulling her hair out of the ponytail, Leah stepped into the warm shower. Tilting her head back to get her hair wet, she closed her eyes letting her body relax in the warm water.

_**June 8, 1996**_

_Shaina sat in the same room that she sat in last year. She didn't want to be back here, but yet here she was. It was her mother's fault. She dragged her back here, even though she cried, yelled, and screamed not to come back here. But here she was thousands and thousands of miles away from the people she cherished most. Form the person that could protect her no matter what. _

_Sapphires stared back at her in the mirror. The same ones she stared at about a year ago. In fact— they looked worse. It was like they no longer glowed. They looked sad, and dull. _

_Dozens of dozens of red and white horizontal lines filled her forearms. Some lines looked more angrier than the others. _

_A soft knock at the door, made Shaina jump slightly. She quickly recovered pulling her sleeves down as she saw the bathroom door open. _

_A girl with caramel brown hair and chestnut, brown eyes, and fair skin entered the bathroom closing the door behind her. The girl immediately took notice of Shaina's demeanor and immediately pulled the girl into a tight hug. _

_Shaina stiffened at first contact of the hug but, immediately relaxed when her mind caught up to who was actually hugging her. Her best friend here in Europe. Coralie._

"_Hey" Shaina whispered._

"_Hey. How long have you been in town?" Coralie asked_

"_Got here two days ago" Shaina replied solemnly._

"_Well he's left, for now if that's what you're wondering" Coralie said_

_Shaina nodded, and let Cora take her hand to get her out of the bathroom. She led them to Shaina temporary bedroom, while she stayed in hell. _

_Cora let go of Shaina's hand to close and lock the bedroom door, before grabbing her hand again and leading her to the bed so they could sit down. _

_The comforter was poofy, and it was white with bronze designs in it. Even though the bed was comfortable, she could never fall asleep peacefully in it. _

"_You've grown since last summer" Cora said, her eyes examining Shaina up and down. Shaina shrugged, she could say the same about Cora, but chose not to. She simply just didn't feel like talking. _

_She had been confused about herself since last summer, and coming back here has brought it all back. The confusion, the pain, the hurt. Shaina had given it some thought. She knew liking girls was considered bad. But she can't help it. When she first left this place last summer, the confusion—for the most part went away. But now the sole object of her confusion was sitting right next to her. _

_Shaina also felt guilty for thinking these thoughts, when she's been violated but, it was one of her escapes she'd use when it happened. "Are you mad at me?" Cora asked, kind of feeling hurt that her friend wasn't really talking to her. She knew under these circumstances it sucked but they have each other and their other friends. _

"_No" Shaina whispered "I just don't want to be here again"_

"_I know, at least you get to go home for the rest of the year. I have to stay here" Cora said, putting her hand on top of Shaina's hand. Shaina immediately pulled her hand away, cradling it within her own. _

"_Okay what it is?" Cora asked "because normally after shit happens to you or me we come to each other and now you're pulling away from me. So obviously it's not that." Cora paused thinking "is it me?"_

"_No" Shaina whispered "well yes I guess" the blonde puzzled for a second laying out her pros and cons for this situation. 'If I tell her then she might think I'm weird, and then she might not want to be my friend anymore. If I tell her she might not care'._

"_It's embarrassing" Shaina whispered _

"_Okay I've had a lot of embarrassing moments on my part" Cora said trying to ease the blonde into conversation._

"_I...ummm—I like you" Shaina blurted out_

_Cora raised an eyebrow at Shaina's statement. "There's nothing wrong with that" Cora said "I mean I like a girl to"_

"_Really?" Shaina asked _

"_Yup, her name is Aaliyah Sawyer" Cora whispered into Shaina's ear. Shaina pulled back from her a bit and Cora saw her shocked expression, with a hint of worry in her worry in her eyes. "Do you think I forgot your real name?" Cora whispered barely audible. _

_Shaina shook her head slightly. "No" she whispered barely audible._

Glossy lips and smokey eyes stared back at her in the mirror. Her hair, with big curls. With one last glance in the mirror, Leah walked out of the bathroom and into the living room; where Amanda and Charlotte were waiting.

Amanda also had one a black dress like Aaliyah did, but Lotte had on a dark, blue dress. "Okay Shay is going to meet us there" Leah said.

Charlotte and Amanda both nodded their heads. "Alright let's go" Amanda said walking towards the door. "I'll drive!" Leah called out. It only made sense for her to drive, since she lived in the city and Amanda did not and well Lotte...is a hard braker.

The drive was a quiet but not awkward. Leah was just scared of Shay, well she wasn't scared of her, she was just nervous about the situation. She needed to at least have a girlfriend at some point in her life, or else she'll be lonely forever. She'll be the crazy cat old lady and have like fifty cats, when she retires.

Aaliyah definitely did not want that. She just wants to be with someone at least once in her life before she dies with her short lifespan. One because of the job and the other...well she'd rather not think about that.

Once they pulled into the parking lot of the already packed club, Leah's heart rate sped up to at least a hundred-sixty.

Stepping out of the car she felt she was out of breath. The nervous pit in her stomach growing more and more with each step she took closer to club.

She could faintly hear music from outside. Opening up the door, the music got increasingly louder, and a rainbow of lights filled her vision.

Leah held the door open for Amanda and Lotte. This would be her first time coming to a club after her alcohol incident. This place is the perfect place for her to relapse but, she was not going to let that happen. The only people who are drinking tonight is Amanda and Shay. Charlotte swore to herself that she wouldn't drink since her drug incident that landed her her in rehab five years ago, and the fact that she's not old enough to drink. If charlotte could do it, then so could Aaliyah.

Immediately Shay saw them and ran up to them in a silver dress, with her hair straightened, and blue eyes gleaming. "Hey!" She yelled over the music, hugging Leah in a bone crushing hug.

Once Shay released Aaliyah, her eyes traveled down to Aaliyah outfit "you look really hot!"

"Thanks" Aaliyah yelled over the loud music. Shay grabbed Leah's hand and lead her to the crowd of people on the dance floor. Shay's hands on Aaliyah's hips, moving her with the music.

Aaliyah tried to let herself relax but her mind kept buzzing on what to do. She was scared, she didn't quite trust Shay; but she had to. She needed to get over herself.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Four_

_Criminal_

_**August 21, 2006**_

Aaliyah woke up in her bedroom, her eyes fluttered open. Her black curtains had blocked out most of the sunlight seeping through the window, but some sunlight still managed to get through some of the cracks. Aaliyah looked up at her phone, _six am. _

She went through her phone and saw that there were no texts from Voight, saying that she had a case. Leah grabbed her phone and went to sit up when she saw someone else in her bed. _Holy shit! Someone broke in! _Was her first thought, but then saw the blonde hair peeking up through the covers. _It's just Shay. _She thought remembering all the events from last night.

Going to club, dancing with Shay, Amanda and Charlotte approving of Shay, Shay wanting to stay the night, and Aaliyah letting her.

Getting up out of bed slowly, not to disturb Shay. Leah pulled on some purple fuzzy socks that were on the floor right next to her bed. Standing up in a light, pink, loose long sleeved shirt, and grey shorts; Aaliyah left the room closing the door gently.

She walked to her kitchen, pulling out a medium sized mixing bowl from one of her kitchen cabinets. Next she walked to the fridge and got out milk and eggs. Opening the styrofoam container of eggs Aaliyah thought for a moment on how much she should make. _I can make more French toast and then freeze it so it can be an easy breakfast during the week, and plus I have Shay here so she might want more French toast. _

Aaliyah settled on her decision to make more French toast than the usual one day breakfast thing. Aaliyah grabbed an egg, cracked it with one hand over the bowl, she then did it six more times. Then she grabbed her measuring cup and added two and a half cups of milk. Leah then got her whisk from one of the drawers and began mixing the two ingredients together.

Taking off the fifteenth piece of French toast off of the griddle, she set it on a plate containing a stack of French toasts. Aaliyah then got two French toasts and cut them diagonally equally. Setting them on a white, glass plate in a row, she added fruits on the side: strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.

She did the exact same thing to a second plate and set them both on the table, as she did this Shay walked in.

"Hey" Leah said as Shay walked in "Good Morning"

"Hey" Shay replied her voice scratchy still coming out of sleep. She rubbed her eyes and sat down at the kitchen table where Aaliyah had placed a plate of breakfast.

"What is it?" Shay asked as Aaliyah went back into the kitchen.

"It is French toast, with fruit; and you can add syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream or jelly" Aaliyah said coming out of the kitchen carrying the condiments in her arms and silverware in her hands. Setting them down on the table, Leah handed Shay a fork and a knife to eat her breakfast.

"Oh...I like waffles" Shay muttered. Leah stopped cutting her toast when she heard Shay say that. _Really!? I just made this breakfast, the least you could do is say thank you. _Aaliyah also felt a little hurt that her work wasn't appreciated. But she just shrugged it off. "Well I'll make you waffles next time, I just didn't know what you liked, and the French toast is really good. Trust me"

"Okay" Shay muttered like a child whose mother is forcing them to eat their vegetables. They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence. _Maybe Shay isn't a morning person, so she couldn't hold her bad attitude against her. _Nonetheless it still hurt her feelings. _Hey, people be bitches, get over it. _She scolded herself.

After Leah ate her breakfast she looked at the time on her phone and saw that it was seven, she had to be at work in an hour, better get ready now. She realized Shay had eaten the whole thing. "You're right this was really good" Shay said shoveling the last bite in her mouth.

Aaliyah nodded while she stood up to clear the table, she walked back into the kitchen rinsing off the plates before putting them in the dishwasher. "Well I have to be at work at eight so, I'm going to get ready" Leah said

"Alright well I better go home to get changed and be off myself" Shay said "thanks for the breakfast"

"You're welcome" Leah replied, and she walked into her bedroom to go into her bathroom. Once inside the safety of her bathroom she sighed in relief. Aaliyah wasn't exactly sure what she wanted. _Did she want to date Shay? Did she not? But Shay seemed like a total bitch this morning. Maybe she's not like that all time._

_**November 7, 1991**_

_Aaliyah sat on her window seat strumming her new guitar that her father had got her for birthday. She already had a ukulele but her father wanted her to get a guitar, and she agreed that she definitely needed the guitar._

_Her father appeared in the doorway of her room, his brown hair, looking lighter in the sunlight. "Hey Scout, got an idea come with me" he said. Her father enjoyed calling her Scout—based off of his favorite book How To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact he enjoyed the book so much that he named his daughter off of one of the characters from the book. _

_Aaliyah's middle name is Scout. At first she didn't like it very much, because people who found out at school, made fun of her for it. But once her father told her the origins of her middle name, she loved it. So after that he started calling her Scout more and more often. And she didn't mind._

"_What is it dad?" Leah asked as she hopped down off the window seat bringing the guitar with her. _

"_Follow me" he said excitedly and led her downstairs and into the basement. Aaliyah hardly ever went into the basement. There was no reason to, and it was dark and scary if you went alone. However this time was different as she had her father with her and he turned the light on by pulling the light string that Leah could never reach because she was still too short. _

_The light illuminated the room to reveal a drum set and two electric guitars. "Woah" Leah said in awe. "Where did you get this"_

"_Well remember when I told you last week when I came back from Atlanta that I won big?" _

_Aaliyah thought back for a moment and nodded her head yes when she remembered that conversation. Her father had come into her room late at night and told her that he had won, and that he would get a surprise for her. _

"_Well Scout this is your surprise!" Leah's eyes got even larger "we can start a band and you will be the next biggest star of America!" _

_Once Aaliyah wrote her first song when she was four, her father thought it was the best thing her had ever heard. And she only continued to get better. Her father thought that she would be this big super star when she grows up, but in order for that to happen she did need to know how to practice in a band. _

"_Go get your sister, we can make a band" her father said_

"_Okay" Leah said excitedly and ran upstairs, to fetch her sister. _

Aaliyah walked into work wearing a red shirt, with a black blazer and black work pants; her hair down in its natural silver waves.

Erin's head immediately shot up and smiled at Aaliyah when she sat down at her desk. "Hey missed you last night" Leah said.

"Yeah had other plans," Erin said "had to go see Justin, got out of prison last night"

"Oh yeah" Aaliyah said remembering "How did that go?" She asked

"Umm as well as can be expected, took him over to Antonio's gym and he gave him and Halstead attitude"

Leah nodded her head understandingly "I mean yeah I get that, just got out of prison and now you're talking to two cops"

"See that's what I said" Erin replied "but a little birdie told me something"

Leah took a long sip of her coffee before replaying "what?"

"You and Shay" Erin whispered like they were all the sudden back in high school talking about relationships.

"Yeah, I don't know"

"What do you mean" Erin immediately shot back "I thought she asked you out and you said _yes" _

"Well she did and I did say _yes _but...I don't know, she was kinda rude to me when I made breakfast and she's kinda pushy"

Erin nodded her head "well she's not a morning person, but still no reason to be rude; especially since you made breakfast."

Leah nodded her head. "And keep me posted" Erin added "last thing you need is a toxic relationship"

"Okay I'll def—" Leah started but was interrupted when Voight came into the room. "We have a case. Erin, Antonio will head to the hospital to talk with the victim, to see what is going on"

"We'll talk later" Erin said getting and grabbing her black jacket. Leah nodded her head and lightly smiled.

Once Erin gave Aaliyah the call on their way back to the hospital that their victim had invested thirty condoms filled with cocaine, it was all hands on deck to find out who the supplier was.

"Alright so our girl in ER is Amber Morris, Amber and her three friends are undergrads at Chicago University, so this is who we're looking for" Halstead said standing up in front of the board pointing to pictures of the girls.

"Checked Amber's facebook page, they are living it up in Cobo, but not just from this trip. Amber has been down there twice in last three months" Leah said sitting on her desk.

"First time she did the runners up, this time she recruited friends" Antonio said

"Now we gotta assume that all these girls are meals that ingested the same type of coke" Voight said

"Guys, I found those girls' address' they all live on campus" Jin said with his computer in hand.

"We gotta move" Dawson said, Leah hopped off her desk grabbing her black jacket and heading out with Erin when she slowed down her pace when she she heard Voight tell Halstead something.

"Look I'm gonna end this here and tell you to keep it in your pants."

"I didn't know it was out" Halstead replied

"Erin's off limits end of discussion"

_Yikes. _Leah thought. She knew Halstead had a thing for Erin but she didn't think he pursued. She knew there was friendly flirting between them, but She guessed Voight didn't like that.

She strode out to the car with Erin, getting into the passenger's seat. "Did you hear what Voight said to Halstead?" Leah asked, seeing if Erin heard him or not.

"No" Erin said shaking her head "what did he say?"

"Oh I don't know, that's why I asked you" Leah replied. Deciding not to tell Erin what she overheard, because she didn't want Erin to give Halstead a hard time about it; and if she didn't know how he feels about her, it could be awkward.

"Oh" Erin said while continuing to drive.

Once they reached the campus, Erin went with Jay while, Aaliyah went with Antonio. One of the campus security officers led them both up, to one of the girl's room.

"Hello Chicago PD, anyone in there?" Leah asked through the door, with her gun in hand. She gave a look to Dawson when no one answered, opening the door slowly, both searched the dorm to find nothing.

Leah went over to the big black suitcase and looked at the baggage tag. "Well they made it home" Leah said reading the tag.

Dawson phone went off and he picked up. Leah read his face while he listened to the caller and it wasn't good. Once the phone call ended she asked what was wrong.

"Girls have been kidnapped by two white males" Dawson said

"So they might still be on campus" Leah replied

Dawson nodded his head. "They probably would have gone down to the parking garage" Leah said.

"Let's move" Dawson said, getting out if the room. The duo took the stairs down to the parking garage, their guns in hand. Once they were down, they saw a black van hastily make its way out of the parking garage.

Sawyer and Dawson had their glocks ready to shoot but immediately put their guns down when students entered the garage.

"I'll call Voight" Leah said while putting her gun back into its holster. She pulled out her phone from her butt pocket and called Voight"

"Yes"

"Dawson and I saw a black van make its way out of the parking garage in a hurry. We think those are the people that took the girls"

"Alright, look more into that van. Did you get a plate number"

"Yeah I remember the first four digits."

"Alright and the girl just woke up at the hospital Halstead and Lindsay are on their way now, meet us up there" Voight said and hung up.

"What did he say?" Dawson asked

"We have to meet Lindsay and Halstead at the hospital, Amber woke up. And wehave to look into that van"

"Let's go" Dawson said and the two made their way back to the car and left for the hospital.

Voight walked them in, "we're putting out an investigative alerts on Sean and Brendon Collins" Erin said waking up to rest of squad, with Halstead in tow.

"Sean is the boyfriend. She said him and his brother hang out at an underground tattoo parlor" Halstead said

"Good work" Voight said

"I'll get a list and send it to Al" Dawson said when Erin walked straight past Voight. _Maybe Jay did tell her after all. _

Back at the station Erin, Dawson, and Sawyer were looking more into the girls' past when Sargent Platt walked up. "Hey, Amber Morris' mother is downstairs" she said

"All right bring her up" Dawson said

Platt turned around, and Aaliyah already knew that look from anywhere. _The pissed off face look_. _You idiot you never tell Sergeant Platt to do anything! _Aaliyah thought wanting to scream at Dawson.

"I'm assuming that's Spanish for go do it yourself" Platt said and walked back downstairs.

Dawson gave Sawyer a look and she just shrugged her shoulders. "How did you work with that for three years?" He asked

"I honestly have no idea" Leah replied. "But I can go talk to the mother if you want me too"

Dawson nodded his head "Yeah, how about you go do that"

"Así amigo" Leah replied getting up from her chair

Dawson laughed and shook his head "still can't get over that a girl as white as you knows Spanish"

"I know a lot of languages, I'm very linguistic" Aaliyah smiled while going downstairs. She opened the gate, and continued going the rest of the way downstairs. She saw Platt barking at some other traffic cop about not being responsible enough or something of the sort.

Leah saw a woman in the interview room, the door was ajar. _That must be Mrs. Morris. _She thought walking into the room. "Mrs. Morris" Leah said. The woman looked up at her, with her tear stained face and red eyes. "I'm Detective Sawyer with the Intelligence Unit"

The woman nodded her head, so Aaliyah sat down at the table across from her.

"You have to tell them that Amber had nothing to do with this!" Mrs. Morris demanded

"Ma'am, the doctors pumped out thirty balloons of cocaine out of her stomach" Leah paused for a second before adding more to her answer "I'm pretty sure she has something to do with this"

"No, no that's not true she must have been forced…" Mrs. Morris trialed off not wanting to believe that her daughter would do such a thing.

"By the way it looks right now, your daughter did this voluntarily" Sawyer said "she said she did it for money"

"But, it can't be! She just made the Dean's list as school. She's a good student!" The mother cried, continuing to wipe tears from her cheeks with a tissue. Really, Aaliyah felt bad for the woman. She couldn't even fathom what this poor mother must be going through.

"And I have no doubt that she is a good student, and a good daughter." Leah replied, trying to ease the mother. She wasn't lying, she knew kids sometimes just made stupid mistakes when they leave home from the first time.

"What's going to happen to her?" The mother whispered, sniffing.

"Well right now she is cooperating with our DA, so they might cut her a deal."

The mother nodded her head and continued to cry. "Mrs. Morris, this isn't your fault" Leah said looking straight at the mother. "Sometimes when kids leave home without their parents, they do stupid stuff. But you can't always have eyes on them all the time."

The mother nodded "at least your daughter is alive" Aaliyah finished before getting up from her seat across the table. Leah left the door open again and walked back upstairs to Lindsay and Dawson.

_**September 11, 2003**_

_Aaliyah sat in the front row of the large college classroom. The desks went up in levels, luckily she didn't sit in the back, cause she would have to climb stairs everyday to get to her desk. Of course sitting in the front also had some downsides. She was always called on. Most of the students in the front were, which was why they hated sitting in the front. But Aaliyah actually didn't mind, because most of the time she knew the answer; and her college professor Mrs. Bowen really liked Aaliyah. _

"_Alright class do not forget we have a guest speaker tomorrow, and you will be tested on what he talks about on Monday" she said _

_The bell rang signaling for class to be over. Leah packed up her notebook and pens and pencils into her black backpack. She took her time since she wanted to talk with the professor about the guest speaker and what exactly the test will be over._

_Her professor was on her computer setting up for her next class when Aaliyah walked up to her, "Mrs. Bowen" the professor stopped what she was doing and looked up at Aaliyah and smiled when she saw her. "Yes, Aaliyah"_

"_I was wondering who our guest speaker is tomorrow?" Leah asked "and what they will be talking about and what exactly the test will be over"_

"_All you need to know, is that you will like him. And the test should be rather easy if you take good notes and study them."_

"_Him?" Leah questioned _

_Mrs. Bowen laughed "relax, Aaliyah. You will do fine. You have the highest grade in this behavioral science class, don't stress"_

"_Okay" Aaliyah said _

"_And I want you to be just as active in giving answers and raising your hand, when the speaker comes"_

"_Will do" Leah replied_

"_Alright, I'll see you tomorrow" Mrs. Bowen said _

"_Have a good day" Leah replied and walked out of the classroom. _

_The next day Leah walked into the classroom, sitting down at the desk. Reaching into her backpack to grab her notebook and pencil bag that was full of pens and pencils. By the time she sat back up the classroom was already almost full. _

_Opening her notebook to a fresh new page, she titled the page 'Profiling' since that was what was on the whiteboard; she also dated the page—9/12/03. _

_Once everyone was settled in their seats. Mrs. Bowen called role. After she was done counting who was absent she started talking "Alright everyone, I need you to give your full attention to the guest speaker. It is a privilege to have him come talk with us today." Mrs. Bowen paused, "please welcome Mr. David Rossi" _

_Everyone automatically started clapping, including Aaliyah. She had to maintain her straight face or otherwise she would look incredibly ridiculous with her big smile. Biting the inside of her cheek to keep her from smiling like an idiot. _

_Mr. Rossi held up his hand in the air to get everyone to settle down. The classroom died down of its noise almost immediately. Leah was at the edge of her seat, pen in hand ready to take some intense notes. She was ready to what this man had to say. He was an icon. Starting the BAU with Jason Gideon, being a decorated agent, and writing books about it. Aaliyah owned all the books that had come out and read all of them the day they came out. Unable to sleep or do anything until she read the whole thing. _

"_It's good to see future agents" he said, scanning the crowd. "Now, simple terms. At the BAU we use behavioral science, research, casework, and training. To hunt down monsters: rapists, terrorists, pedophiles, and our specialty...serial killers" Leah's hand moved fast jotting down important notes, not wanting to miss any important information. _

"_Does anyone know exactly what a serial killer is?" Rossi asked. Aaliyah's right hand shot straight up into the air, as her left hand was still finishing up her sentence. _

_Rossi immediately took notice of the girl whose hand shot straight up into the air without hesitation. "Yes, you in the front" _

"_Someone who commits at least three murders over more than a month with an emotional cooling off period in between." Leah answered, hoping she didn't let Mr. Rossi down, because that would be very embarrassing._

"_Yes that is exactly right" he said, already very impressed with this girl's answer. "Today we are going to talk about how some serial killers get made. Because if you can understand that, then you can figure out a way to catch them"_

_Leah jotted down a note, summing up that you must understand the serial killer to catch it. _

_Rossi scanned the class again and saw only a few students jotting down notes. He looked to the girl in the front who answered his first question and saw she was indeed taking down notes. She kind of reminded him of himself long ago. Young and eager to learn. _

"_Now we're going to look at some cases, some have been solved and some have not" Rossi said. "You guys are going to help me"_

_Leah sat up even straighter than before. She couldn't help but feel excited to help out, and look at some cases. _

"_Here pass these out" Rossi said to Mrs. Bowen handing her a stack of case files. "Now I don't know if that's enough for everyone so you might have to share" he said_

_Leah got handed a case file, "here I'll share with you" she said to Ethan who sat next to her. "Alright but if this is a partner thing, you're on your own, I'm too dumb for this" he said_

"_Whatever" Aaliyah replied, opening up the file. The first thing she saw was a picture of a man paper clipped in the top right hand corner. He was white maybe late thirties early forties, he had blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. _

_Leah read through the file, stabbed his victims to death with a twelve inch knife, mutilated the woman's genitals, and dumped them wherever. Naked._

_Aaliyah's first thought was that she felt bad for these women. What they must've been through, and then be dumped like trash. _

"_Oh god, I regret eating breakfast" Ethan said covering his mouth, while putting the crime scene photos face down. _

"_There's a trash can over there" Leah said pointing by the door._

"_Are you serious if I can't stomach this, how on earth will I do my job"_

_Leah shrugged, "maybe you'll get jaded—"_

"_Alright we ready to go?" Rossi asked _

_Leah nodded her head yes. "Alright so the first one, I passed out is Miles Jonas. He stabbed and mutilated women, killed forty" Rossi said._

_Leah looked at the file again, there was no evidence sexual assault on the victims, so maybe he was impotent._

"_Now what is the first thing you think of when looking at the file?"_

_Leah looked around and saw that no one was raising their hands, so she raised hers. "Yes" Rossi said_

"_Well there is no evidence of sexual assault so, maybe he is impotent and stabbing is his release" she said starting to question herself midway through her theory _

_Rossi nodded his head, and gestured with his hand to keep going "what else?"_

_Leah flipped through the file again and looked at the crime scene photos. "He disposes the bodies near ally's and dumpsters. Probably because he thinks of them like garbage." Leah said but then got another theory "and the overkill on some of these victims is extreme, so maybe he was hurt by a woman in the past, because only a woman can make him hate women so much" _

"_Yes, that is correct. Miles hated women. That was what he said to me in an interview"_

_David Rossi flipped the light switch and opened the projector. It revealed a video of the man and Rossi sitting across from each other at a metal table. With Miles Jonas' hands cuffed._

"_I killed all of them because I'm the best there ever was, they deserved what they got!" He yelled at Rossi._

"_I would not say you're the best" Rossi states _

_The man looked like he was about to explode when Rossi said that. His face getting red with anger, his jaw clenched, and eyes glaring at Rossi. _

"_Yes. I. am. I killed forty woman!" He shouted spit flying out of his mouth at every word._

_Rossi paused the video "Okay so what did I do here to get him to confess to even more women that he killed?" _

_Leah decided to give someone else a chance to answer the question, but no one raised their hand. So Rossi chose "you in the front, blue shirt" he said pointing to Aaliyah. "What's your name?"_

"_Aaliyah Sawyer"_

_Rossi nodded his head "Agent Sawyer, What did I do here to get him to confess to more victims?"_

_Aaliyah took a deep breath, her heart was pounding, she could not get this wrong. "You…" she trailed off "Umm could you play the video again?" She asked _

_Rossi gave a face she could not quite read, so she justified her answer "just the first fifteen seconds"_

_Rossi rewinded the video to the beginning and played. _

"_I killed all of them because I'm the best there ever was, they deserved what they got!" He yelled at Rossi._

"_I would not say you're the best" Rossi states _

_The man looked like he was about to explode when Rossi said that. His face getting red with anger, his jaw clenched, and eyes glaring at Rossi. _

_As soon as Rossi stopped the video, Aaliyah thought she found what she was looking for. "Well?" He asked _

"_You used his narcissistic behavior against him, making him angry and confessing to even more victims so he could one up you"_

"_Yes" Rossi said "that is what I was looking for"_

"Collins' brother is a known thugs from Bridgeport, both have records from armed robbery and aggravated battery" Voight said, standing up in front of the board

"So they've graduated to drug smuggling using naive college girls" Jay said

"Uniforms checked their LK's, they're in the wind" Erin said

"DMV came back, Brendon Collins owns a black ford van" Sawyer said

"I'm assuming that these brothers are using throw away phones now that Amber has been arrested" Jin said

Voight nodded his head, with his arms crossed. "Okay, keep digging, give me any known associates" he said.

Aaliyah went to her computer and tried to search more on the brothers. Hoping that maybe their family owns something to where they could have taken the girls.

When Aaliyah looked up from her computer she saw Erin storm out of Voight's office. The door slamming made everyone look up for a second. Leah got up out of her desk, and followed Erin down.

When they made it to the garage in the back Leah asked Erin "Hey what happened up there?" She asked pointing back up at the stairs.

"Ugh don't wanna talk about it" Erin said

"Okay" Leah replied doing reverse psychology and going back upstairs. As she walked she counted down in her head. _Three, two, one. _

"It's just that Voight is being way too overprotective" Erin said and Aaliyah turned around, ready to listen to what her friend had to say. "He just being so fucking annoy—"

Erin was cut off by Jin walking up "Hey got a ping on Brendon's phone"

"Do you have a location?"Erin asked

"Yeah, but they might not—"

"Send it" Aaliyah said

"Let's go Sawyer" Erin said and the two made their way to one of the cars.

As soon as they both got in, Erin started to speed off without much second thought. Speeding past cars and intersections, Leah was slightly worried she would hit someone; but these girls' lives are in danger.

"Okay which way!?"

"Take a right on 77th and 9th" Leah said. Erin took a hard right turn stopping a black van in the ally. They both stepped out of the car, with their guns in hand "stop! Chicago PD!" Leah yelled.

No one moved for a second, then the van started to reverse. Leah pulled out her phone and hit Dawson's number.

"The van is heading your way. North on 44th" Sawyer said

"Alright" he replied and hung up.

Erin and Aaliyah went back into the car to follow the van.

Metal against metal screeching was the sound when the truck hit the van. Luckily the truck driver was okay. Brendon Collins, however was not as his head was through the windshield. Opening the back of the van only revealed more emptiness. The girls were nowhere to be found.

*A/N so we have David Rossi in this chapter, the BAU will come in a few chapters*


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five_

_Not Knowing is Oblivious _

"Damnit" Erin said while slamming the car door hard. _We've got to find those girls, if not they could die. _Aaliyah's phone buzzed from her pocket, pulling her phone out she answered. "Sawyer"

"Hey, so I ran Brendon Collins' background information, and it turns out that his father who is now deceased owned a warehouse." Jin said

This information immediately got Leah's attention, "where?"she asked

"It's right there, less than a mile away from you, I'll send you the address"

"Thanks" she said and hung up. "So their father owns a warehouse, less than a mile from here" Aaliyah's said walking up to the group.

"Do we have an address?" Voight asked

"Yeah, Jin just sent it to our phones now"

"Alright let's go" Voight said. Everyone immediately dispersed and got into their vehicles to go the warehouse. Aaliyah was driving and Voight was next to her in the passenger seat. Aaliyah's heart was pounding they need to find these girls alive.

The drive was less than five minutes, everyone was pulling up at the warehouse at the same time. Voight and Sawyer stepped out of the car "Let's suit up!" He yelled. Opening the trunk of the car, he handed Aaliyah her bullet proof Kevlar Police vest.

Leah took the vest and slid it over her head, once it was on she velcroed the straps allowing it fit snugly on her. Next she pulled out a black hair tie that was in her pocket and put her hair in a ponytail, to stay out of her face.

Voight then opened a big black case and handed Sawyer a carbines. 2.1 M4A1 gun. "Here" he said, Aaliyah took it and nodded her head.

"We ready!" Voight yelled

Everyone nodded their heads _yes_, that they were ready as they were suited up. Voight entered the warehouse first, with Sawyer behind him. There was an automatic chill in the air as the warehouse was a different temperature than outside, it was cooler.

Their flashlight only illuminated so much, but from what they could see there was definitely a struggle. There was trash and medical supplies like scalpels and needles were on the floor.

Leah's eyes wandered down to the hallway and saw a trail of blood. "Guys" she called. Everyone turned their heads and she illuminated the blood on the ground with the flashlight that was on the gun.

Leading the rest of the team down the hallway, following the trail of blood. Lead them to a room, with a dead girl on a table. Her stomach was completely cut open. Blood covering her abdomen, and around her.

"It's Bethany" Leah said.

"Damn" Voight muttered.

When CSU came to wheel the body out, Leah walked up to one of them. "What was her COD?" Sawyer asked

"The cut to her stomach was not made by any medical professional, it tore into the balloons, causing them to burst. She died by the initial cut to her stomach" the woman said.

"Alright thanks" Leah said and walked towards the rest of the team. "COD was the initial cut to her stomach" she said walking up to them.

Voight nodded his head "we still have two girls missing," just then Voight got a call from Olinsky.

"You sure?"

"Alright we're on our way" Voight said and hung up. "They brought the girls to the tattoo parlor, Al identified both, Let's go"

Hopping into the SUV, Aaliyah rode with Voight. The drive pretty quick as the girls' lives were in danger.

Running into the tattoo parlor was a sight. A man held a knife in one of his hands, with a girl bleeding out on a table, another one tied to a radiator in the corner. "Chicago PD! Put your hands up" Sawyer yelled.

The man smirked, and clenched the knife even tighter in his hand. "Sean, you don't want to do this" Leah said approaching him slowly. "It's over, your not going to get your money or your drugs"

Sean still didn't move, but the death grip on the knife lessoned "listen to her Sean" Voight said.

"You have no medical training to do that, you're just going to bust open the balloons" Sawyer pressed "you didn't mean to hurt Bethany, did you?"

"No! I just wanted what was in her!" He yelled

"You're not going to get it the way you're doing it now" Erin said

Finally, Sean dropped the knife, realizing If was over. Erin immediately made his over to him, cuffs in hand. Aaliyah found a towel on the ground and walked over to the girl, pressing the towel hard on her stomach to stop the bleeding. "We need a medic!" She yelled.

A minute later paramedics made their way to the scene. Aaliyah removed the towel when the medics arrived, backing up and giving them space to do their job.

Stepping back outside, she felt like a small weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Yes, they lost one girl, but the rest of them were going to be okay, and that was what mattered. Aaliyah knew that she can't dwell on the what if's or the what could've's. She needed to accept the outcome of this situation.

Already deciding on plans when she got home, which would be a nice relaxing hot bath with candles, and taking a nap.

Voight walked up to Aaliyah putting his hand on her shoulder. It took her out of her previous thoughts. "You did good" he said

"Thanks" Leah replied

_**March 22, 1996**_

_Aaliyah put her purple bike, which looks more black now in the garage, like she does everyday after school. Today her little sister Lotte was having a sleepover at her friend Penny's house this weekend. _

_Leah was grateful that her sister would not be home for the weekend, it's unsafe for her. And the last thing Aaliyah needed was for her sister to be subjected to the same things she has. _

_Hopefully Amanda, would let Leah tag along to whatever her friends are doing. They did that from time to time, but Aaliyah always knew when to back off as Amanda should have the right to hang with her older friends without an eleven year old breathing down her neck. _

_She knew Amanda never saw it like that, but Aaliyah felt that, that was what she was doing. _

_Walking over to Amanda's house next door, Leah knocked on the door. Waiting for Amanda to answer. Since Aaliyah was in middle school, seventh grade, the high schoolers got out earlier than middle school. _

_Ever since Europe happened Aaliyah talked to the school counselors and told them that she wanted to graduate early. She didn't tell them that it was to get the hell out of Loganville, Georgia, and to never ever see her mother again, and to never go to back to that horrible, awful place in Europe. She simply told them that she wanted to be challenged. And they let her take some tests, and she passed with flying colors that they had to let her skip a grade. _

_Kim opened the door annoyed. "What the fuck do you want!?" She asked angrily. _

"_I was just wondering if Amanda's home?"_

"_She left with her friends about an hour ago" Kim said with a wave of her hand_

"_Did she say where she was going?" Leah asked, hopefull to get a location of where she was at. _

"_No, and I didn't bother asking" Kim spat "all she said was that she wanted me to get go get groceries"_

"_Are you gonna do that?" _

"_No"_

"_Well that's against her wishes" Leah said _

"_Well you know what Little Miss Inocent, I don't give a fuck to what my big sister says" _

_Leah clenched her jaw before saying "well you don't have to be a total fucking bitch hoe!" _

"_Excuse me?" _

"_You heard me" Leah said and crossed her arms over her nonexistent boobs. _

"_You know what." Kim said with anger going through her veins "why don't you get the groceries" _

"_And why would I do that?" Leah asked "it's not my problem"_

"_But what about Amanda" Kim pressed. She knew Aaliyah would do anything for her friend Amanda. "Amanda left me a hundred dollars cash, I'll give you two hundred. One for the groceries, and the other can be for what ever the hell it is you do"_

_Aaliyah thought for a minute, she did the money, she was already working a job at a local diner, singing. The woman who owns the diner Mrs. Belle, adores Aaliyah. But she still needed the money, and she herself needed groceries. She knew full well that her mother would not be getting groceries, and she knew that neither would Richard. Her mother's repulsing boyfriend. _

_She knew she needed to tell her mother what he was doing to her, but she was too scared of what he could do to her later, if her mother didn't believe her._

"_Alright" Aaliyah said "I'll do it"_

"_Thank god, I'll get the money" Kim said and walked away. She came back about thirty seconds later with two hundred dollars cash, and a list of grocerie items she needed to buy. _

_Aaliyah took the cash, and the list, and tucked it nicely into her jean short pocket. Walking off the porch of the Rollins' house, Leah took off her blue flannel that had white and black in it. Leaving her in a white tank top. _

_The only reason she took it off, was because she was just going to be riding her bike into town, and she knew she wouldn't be seeing many people on the ride there. And also becuase it was already hot, even though it was only March it was already reaching the high eighties. _

_Opening the garage again, Leah wheeled out her bike and attatched a basket to it, to help hold some of the groceries. Once outside, Aaliyah rode off; heading her way into town. _

Once in the safety of her condo, Leah took a deep sigh of relief that she was home. _Finally get to relax. _Setting her badge and gun down on the counter, she made her way towards the bathroom. But when she opened the door to her bedroom she was met with a sight.

There in the middle of her bed, was rose pedals sprinkled everywhere on the floor and in her bed. And in the center of it all was Shay in a bright pink lingerie, laying out sexually in a very bizarre pose. She even had a rose in her mouth.

Leah wasn't exactly sure what her face read in that moment, but it must've been some form of shock becuase Shay said "I know right"

"I've been waiting for you to get home for hours"

_Hours? Home? This is my place. How did you even get in!? _Aaliyah opened her mouth to speak "h-how did you get in?"

"Oh your sister gave me her key, lovely girl"

Aaliyah gritted her teeth. _How could Lotte do that! This was HER place. That was Aaliyah's right. _

"Come here baby" Shay said with open arms. _Did she want sex? _Because that was last thing on Aaliyah's mind.

"Umm you know what, I really want to take a relaxing bath, it's been a long day at work"

"Oh, I know the perfect way to help you unwind" Shay said pulling the lingerie bra strap off her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm really tired" Leah said backing away from Shay and making her way towards the bathroom.

"Wait" Shay said "are you serious!"

Aaliyah was almost in the bathroom, she was turning the door knob to go in. "What do mean" Leah said turning around, but her right hand still on the door knob.

"Are you seriously turning me down" Shay said in a bit of a shock. "Do you have any idea how expensive roses are!" She was almost yelling now, each word growing louder than the last.

"Well I didn't ask you to do that" Leah said calmly. She never asked Shay to do that, she didn't even wanting her to have a key to her condo. She didn't even want her here.

"Are you fucking kidding me!" Shay said now standing up from the bed "your sister said you like the romantic gestures" she was now walking towards Aaliyah.

"Well, I didn't ask for it right now" Leah replied. She had not risen her voice to Shay, she didn't want to fight. All she wanted to do was take a relaxing bath, and go to sleep.

"Well, I want to fuck you right now" Shay said, inches away from Aaliyah, she picked up her hand that was not gripping the door knob and brought it down to her center. Feeling the heat and wetness, Aaliyah drew her hand away immediately.

"I don't want to have sex, right now" Leah whispered, it was quiet but it was stern.

"Why?" Shay asked

"I don't owe you an explanation of why I don't want to have sex. I have the right to say no" Leah said, this time she was getting slightly louder with each passing word. This needed to be made clear. She did not want have sex with Shay.

"Ugh fine buzzkill" Shay said walking away from her. Aaliyah sighed in relief, she didn't know what she would've done is Shay had pushed her into sex.

Shay pulled on her shirt and put her jeans on "well can we at least go out"

"I don't really feel like going out, I really just want to take a relaxing bath and go to sleep"

Shay rolled her eyes "the least you could do is go to a nice restaurant with me and pay for dinner since you tossed out my original plan"

_Did she owe Shay? Did she really owe her for not wanting to have sex with her, is that how it works. One partner doesn't want to have sex and that means the other partner has to agree with whatever else they say. Aaliyah wasn't sure, she was bad with relationships as she's never been with anyone to know what was right and what wasn't. _

_She looked down at all the rose pedals that were on the floor and on the bed. It was a nice gesture, and she knew roses were expensive. Maybe it was the least she could do. _

"Fine" Leah said

Shay smiled "see, knew you'd come around let's go" she said grabbing Aaliyah hand leading her out the door.

_Once Aaliyah made it into town she let go of the handles of her bike and took off the flannel that was wrapped around her waist. She put her arms through it, while still pedaling. She had become a master of the bike. _

_She didn't need anyone to see her scars on her wrists, or the brand on her left wrist, or the slight discoloration of her arms from bruises. People will talk. It's a small town, everyone knows everyone. And everyone knows everything. _

_Riding up to a Walmart. She hopped off her bike and chained it to the bike rack. Walking into Walmart was refreshing. The air conditioning hit you as soon as you walked in. She instantly felt cooler. Leah shivered the more she walked in. _

_Pulling the flannel off her waste, she put it on. She then got a shopping cart and proceeded into Walmart. _

_Taking out the list she read it: corn, bread, salad, beans, apples, butter, eggs, bacon, potatoes, grapes, Cheerios, Lucky Charms, canned green beans, bell peppers, tortillas, cheese, milk, orange juice, and chicken._

_Deciding she would just get two of everything but the meat seemed good for Aaliyah. _

_She became a vegetarian after her experiences in Europe. The thought of eating meat only caused her to gag. _

_Strolling through Walmart, Leah went to the bread aisle; figuring she could knock out bread and tortillas. Getting two of each she placed them in the cart. _

_Realizing that she didn't have a pen or pencil with her. She walked to the office supplies area of the store. _

_Grabbing a package of pens off the hook, she looked around to make sure no one was looking. Before proceeding to open it. Punching a hole with her nail in the back of the cardboard, Aaliyah was able to successfully pull out a black pen. Putting the package back on the hook behind another so no one would notice, she walked away checking off bread and tortillas. _

_Aaliyah then walked to the produce section. The air immediately feeling frigid on her bare legs. She grabbed two egg cartons and put them in the basket part of the cart, worried they might crack if she puts them with the other groceries. _

_She pushed the basket along got two cartons of milk, chicken, cheese, butter, orange juice, grapes, salad, and bell peppers. _

_Check, check, an check. She thought as she crossed out the grocery items off the list. Aaliyah trudged the cart along to the another aisle. She noticed a woman was looking at her strange, probably wondering why an eleven year old is going grocery shopping. _

_Standing up on her tippy toes, Aaliyah reached up and grabbed two boxes of Lucky Charms. Putting them into the cart, her eyes caught the cheerios. She sighed in relief that they were at her eye level. Grabbing two boxes she put them into the cart. _

Shay took Aaliyah to a restaurant, it wasn't exactly a Mcdonalds, but is wasn't a fancy restaurant either. Just in between, so she was fine in her work clothes that she had worn all day.

The waiter sat them down at a table. "Thank you" Aaliyah said. The waiter smiled at her. "What drinks would you guys like?" She asked

"Umm I'll have-"

"She'll split a red with me" Shay said interrupting Aaliyah. The waiter nodded her head and took off. Aaliyah looked at Shay in disbelief. _Did she forget that I'm an alcoholic? I've been sober for a couple weeks now, and I really would like to keep it that way. _

Shay looked at Aaliyah, seeming completely oblivious of the glare she was receiving. "So how was your day?" Shay asked

Leah had to refrain from saying, _oh it actually wasn't too terrible until I got home and you made my day unbearable. _"Fine" she said sharply.

"Well that's good, my day wasn't too bad myself"

Aaliyah nodded her head, and picked up the menu to look through it. Most of this stuff on the menu was meat, and she didn't eat meat. Scanning through the salads, she realized she wasn't in the mood for a salad; she looked at the appetizers.

She saw Shay's glare at her when she moved the menu down a little. Aaliyah wasn't sure why Shay was glaring at her, especially since Leah is paying for dinner.

Moving the menu to up a bit to block Shay's glare, she met with Shay clearing her throat. Meaning she wanted her attention.

Internally rolling her eyes, Leah set the menu down and looked up at Shay, "yes"

"Aren't you gonna ask me about my day?" She asked

_What!? She told me it was good, there's nothing else I would like to know. _Deciding it was best not to fight Aaliyah asked her how her day was.

"Oh it was just great, so for my first shift, Gabby and I pulled this…"

Aaliyah already began to block Shay out. She had no intention of knowing how her day was. Maybe if she had the chance to recuperate and take a nice relaxing bath, then she probably would be listening. She didn't want to be here, she wanted to be home. She was tired from a long day of work. She just wanted to sleep.

Leah put a hand over her mouth and yawned. "Are you even listening?" Shay asked. She had to think what the original conversation was in the first place. Something about Gabby and Shay pulling something. "Uhh you and Gabby pulling something" Leah guessed

"Ugh you weren't even listening"

"Look, I'm sorry, I'm just really tired, I had a long day, and I just really want to go home" Leah said

"Well I had a long day too" Shay interjected

"But you just said how great it was!" Aaliyah said shocked and offended. _She just talked about how great it was! And now she's saying she had a long day! _

Shay rolled her eyes "I tried to make your day great but all you've been doing to me since you got home is ruin my good intentions for you"

"No offense, I appreciate what you do for this city. But all you do is wait around for the next call. I had to do work! My brain had to be functioning, I had to be on my toes!" Aaliyah yelled.

People around them started to glare and look towards their table. Leah's face was flushed with anger. "You know what, I'm going to go" Aaliyah said and stood up from the table walking out of the restaurant.

Once she stepped out, she realized that Shay had driven them there. "Fuck" she muttered. She took a deep breath sighed before walking to the nearest metro. Looking down at her watch; it was ten pm. "You've got to be fucking kidding me" she muttered.

Angry was not the right word for how Aaliyah felt. She felt more enraged: she was angry at Shay for being so ignorant and stupid. If this was ever going to work, Shay needed to fix herself. It felt like she had no consideration for Aaliyah. And Leah has been through enough shit already, she didn't need anymore from anyone.

_The checkout line was fast since, she took the self checkout, and that line always goes by faster. Putting the plastic Walmart bags in the cart, she paid sliding the one hundred dollar bill into the machine and grabbing the fifteen dollars and seventy-five cents change out of the cup thing that catches the change when in falls. _

_Putting the money in her pocket, she trudged the cart to the entrance to exit the walmart. Her bike was still sitting there, glistening in the sunset. Unlocking the bike lock, Leah put the chain and lock in the basket, along with some of the groceries. _

_Of course not all of them fit into the basket, so she put some of the grocery bags through the bike handles. One bag on each bike handle. _

_Aaliyah then went onto her bike and rode off. The balance being way off from the groceries caused her to waddle on the bike. _

_It was dusk when she left the store, and that only made her more nervous. Not that some creep was going to get her; it was a small town, everyone knew everyone. The only creep in this town was her mother's boyfriend. Richard Dicks. Even his name was creepy, and Dicks as a last name was kinda coincidental, considering he is a dick. _

_Aaliyah paddled harder on the bike, as she wanted to get home and put the groceries away before shit went down. _

_Sweat dripped from her forehead, even though the sun was going down and that it was almost dark. The heat hardly ever went down. _

_Her legs were getting tired. They started to burn. Leah slowed down her bike and put her legs to the ground to stop the bike. Stopping to take a breath; she thought of how much longer it would be before she got home. The shopping centers and stores were on the other side of town, and of course her home was on the other side of town form the stores. So she could be home in fifteen minutes. It would be less if she didn't have the groceries but, all of that extra weight slowed her down. _

_Taking one last intake of breath, she propelled herself forward, and started pedaling her way home. The sun was nearly down by now. Switching on the on button to a headlight for her bike, illuminated the sidewalk. _

_Come on Aaliyah you can make it, come on. However fate had other plans as her bike his an indent in the sidewalk causing her to fall over into the road. _

The keys clicked into the lock of her condo. Pushing open the door, Leah felt an immense relief, and some of the anger had lifted off her shoulders. Hanging up her purse, and sliding out of her boots, she put them on a shoe rack before walking into her bedroom.

The smell hit her first when she first walked in. Flowers. The rose pedals. "Fuck" she muttered. They were all over everything. Aaliyah didn't want to single handedly put all of these pedals in the trash; she was too tired.

Not caring if there were going to be rotting pedals in the morning, Leah flopped down onto her bed, her eyes shutting instantly.

The sound of an alarm clock, stirred Aaliyah out of sleep. Turning over to turn it off, she realized that she was tucked in. She knew for a fact she didn't fall asleep like that. Sitting up, Leah realized that the rose pedals were gone.

Getting up out of bed, she walked to the bathroom. Only to be met with an interesting sight. Her face felt gross since she slept with her makeup on. But surprisingly her face oddly looked the same. Luckily there were no pimples from not taking off her makeup, so that was a relief. Grabbing a washcloth out the drawer, she turned on the sink to warm water, and ran the washcloth under. Then she got facial wash soap, and put it on the cloth.

Rubbing the substance together in the cloth, she brought it to her face. Washing all of the oil and dirt off. _Maybe Shay isn't so bad? She did clean up after herself. _Rinsing off the soap with water, Leah turned off the sink.

_Wait I need to shower. _She thought as she dried her face with a towel. _Then why did I just wash my face, could've done it in the shower?! Ugh, you fucking idiot. _

Turning on the shower, Leah stripped of her clothes, and stepped in. She decided to use this time to process her thoughts. _Should she forgive Shay? She was an ass to her yesterday. Yes, that was yesterday, it is now today. New day, so she should be forgiven. I've had worse. _Aaliyah finally concluded.

_The concrete road scraped her arms and legs, causing an immediate stinging sensation. "You've got to be kidding me," she muttered. Aaliyah then felt wet, like something was getting her wet. There was no rain...she stood up noticing that the one of the milk containers had completely busted open, spilling milk everywhere. _

_Standing the bike up, she checked the basket which help the eggs. Picking up the egg carton, she already knew. Opening it up had only proven what she knew, all the eggs were cracked. She looked at the other carton hoping for a different result. But they were cracked as well. _

_Aaliyah really just felt like crying. But she knew she couldn't. She didn't have time. Putting all the groceries that fell out back into the bags. She sat back down on her bike and continued going. 'What was Amanda going to think?' She let her best friend down. She let her sister down, she won't be able to have eggs or milk. They were already low on food, so of course she had to make it worse for her family. _

_She pulled up her bike to the garage on the side of her house, between the Rollins' house and her's. Grabbing the bag of groceries Leah trudged her way to the Rollins' house. _

_Having to set down a bag of groceries to knock on the door, Kim opened it. "What took you so long?" She asked_

'_Wow, no, thank you.' "Umm I fell on the way back here, and the Walmart is on the other side of town" Aaliyah said flatly._

_Kim rolled her eyes opening the door wider Aaliyah could enter, "whatever just put the groceries in the kitchen" _

_Going inside the Rollins' house was never really different from hers. Both of their houses reeked of booze; and they pretty much had the same layout in their houses. Going into the kitchen Leah set the groceries down on the island. _

_Glancing up at the kitchen clock on the stove it read nine o'clock. 'This is bad' Leah thought. 'It's already too late. I'm screwed.' She knew her and Kim were never really close, it was always her and Amanda. 'Maybe Kim will let me stay the night.' 'Granted it will be a crappy sleepover, but at least I'll be safe.' _

"_Hey Kim, can I stay the night?" Leah asked _

_Kim turned around from putting the groceries away and tilted her head to the side, and squinted her eyes. "Why?" She asked "Amanda's not even here, she's out"_

"_I know but I figured—"_

"_What! You figured what! We'd paint each other nails and shit"_

"_Well no...but...please"_

_Kim continued to glare at Aaliyah "no" she said. _

_Leah felt like crying, right then and there, but she knew she couldn't. "Okay" she said nodding "I'll leave now"_

_Walking out of the kitchen and out the front door; she was only met with fear. Her heart pounded at the thought of going into her house. A house should feel safe, but for her. A house is her worst nightmare. _

_Walking back up the bike, she grabbed the groceries that weren't ruined in the fall and brought them up to her house. Immediately after opening the door. The house reeked of booze and sex. 'I need to hurry'. After closing the door silently, she practically ran into the kitchen. Hurrying in the kitchen to put the groceries away. She could hear heavy footsteps approaching. _

_Her hands shook as she put the canned goods into the pantry. "Hhhheyy yyyoou" a familiar voice slurred behind her. Leah's cheeks were wet from the silent tears streaming down her face. _

_Aaliyah turned around, unable to look at one of her many fears in the eye. Her body psychically shaking. "Please don't" She whispered._

_Richard bent down in front of her. His breath stinking of alcohol and cigarettes. "Yyyour mmootther ssaid that...that I...I ccould have you"_

_Leah involuntarily gulped. "Ddddon't waaaant to disappoint her do you?" He mocked in her face. _

_Aaliyah saw a space between him and the counter, if she could just fit through. She could get away. Her adrenaline pumped through her veins, maiming her heart beat faster. _

_Running into the counter to try and get around, she felt a hand grab her arm. She was yanked off her feet and onto the floor. Her back hitting the tile on the kitchen floor; knocking the wind out of her. _

_Trying to take a deep breath but couldn't, only added to her desperation. Rough hands on her stomach underneath her shirt. She squirmed to try and get away, but she was no match to the large man. _

_Aaliyah then started to scream. Bloody murder, high pitched "SOMEBODY HELP—!" A hand covered her mouth. "Shut up!" _

_Richard reached behind him, and grabbed a glass beer bottle behind him. Aaliyah's eyes widened when she saw it. More tears streamed down her face. Richard had a sly smile on his lips, as he got off on the fear of the little girl under him. _

_Slamming the bottle down on her abdomen, the bottle shattered. Leah's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she was out. _

_She woke up naked, and on the cold tile floor. Her eyes trained on the popcorn ceiling in the kitchen. Sometimes if she looked at the ceiling long enough, it looked like the popcorn ceiling dots were moving into each other. Like something was sucking them down. _

_Her hand felt her stomach, a warm, wet liquid was felt. Pulling her hand off, revaluing blood. Tears welled up in her eyes. Every part of her body hurt, especially her core. She could still feel his rough hands on her, even though she was pretty sure he was gone._

_Attempting to sit up seemed impossible. But she had to get up off the dirty kitchen floor. Gritting her teeth, she sat up. Groaning, the whole way up till she was in a sitting position up against the cabinets. _

_More tears streamed down her flushed cheeks. 'I need to get clean.' That's what mattered the most right now, getting clean. Getting this filth off of her. Gripping the top of the island with her arms, Leah hoisted herself up to her feet. Screaming in agony as she stood up. Her mind felt dizzy, and dazed. 'I need to get upstairs.'_

_Gripping onto the counter for support, Leah started walking towards the stairs. Each step harder than the last. Her body burned. It felt like she was on fire. Finally making to the bottom of the staircase, Aaliyah looked up to the top of the stairs. If felt as if a whole mountain stood between her and the stairs. _

_Grabbing onto the handrail on the stairs, she pulled herself up to the first step. Aaliyah was already gasping for breath, as her body could barely take it. 'One down twenty to go.' Repenting the action she just did, increased the pain between her legs. _

_Her heart best rapidly in her chest, blood dripped from her and onto the floor. There were bloody handprints on the handrail from her. Gritting her teeth, and pulling herself up to the next stair; felt impossible. She had to make it, she had to. _

_Once Aaliyah made it to the top of the staircase, she collapsed onto her side, attempting to mindful to the injuries on her stomach. Taking a small break before clawing her way to her bedroom. _

_Blue eyes started to close. Exhaustion taking over her, pulling her into sleep. She was drowning in an ocean. Sinking farther and farther into the depths. She no longer felt a burning in her lungs from drowning; but a new odd feeling of coldness and numbness. Aaliyah no longer felt anything as she sunk into the blackness of the abyss. _

_Jolting awake for the second time, her eyes felt crusty and her body felt like nothing. Her arm was stretched out beneath her, being used as a pillow for her head. Attempting to move again, hurt even worse, as the carpet upstairs had gotten stuck to some of her cuts on her stomach. _

_Now on all fours, Leah crawled to her bedroom. The awkward body positioning she was in, was making her body hurt. _

_Pushing open the bedroom door with her head, Leah crawled through the room and into the jack and Jill bathroom that her and her sister share. Sitting up on her knees, Aaliyah started the water. Not caring if it was warm enough, Leah practically flopped into the bathtub. _

_The water was cool, but it was quickly warming. She started to cry as she saw all the bloody water go down the drain. Attempting to scrub off the forming bruises on her inner thighs with her hand, only increased her desperation of wanting to be clean._

_She heard someone enter the bathroom. Her heart nearly stopped. The shower curtain pulled back revealing her mother with a cigarette in her mouth. "Mommy" Aaliyah wailed and reached out her arms for her mother. However, her mother only smirked at her. "How does it feel to be a woman again?"_

_It felt like a gut punch to Aaliyah. She was shocked, and hurt at her mother's question. It only caused more tears to stream down her face. _

Walking to the living room, Leah saw Shay in the kitchen. "Hey" Shay said "listen, I want to apologize for my actions last night"

Leah nodded her head. Maybe she could forgive Shay, she apologized and that's what's important.


	6. Chapter Six Just Give Me A Reason

Chapter Six

Just Give Me a Reason

(A/N just want to apologize for not updating in a while, I have been suffering from writers block. anyways the BAU will be in the next chapter)

_**March, 2007**_

The phone vibrated on the coffee table; Leah was alone in her condo per usual. Voight had given them a day off, if it lasts. She got a feeling that it wouldn't last very long as criminals didn't take day offs. Shay said she would be here soon, but she has yet to come. Aaliyah noticed that Shay had become more and more distant with her. It was like she Aaliyah was this burden to her. She thought about breaking up with her numerous times, but she always chickened out because Shay would do something nice and then Aaliyah would feel that now was not a good time.

Grabbing her phone from the coffee table Leah swiped the answer button and put it over her ear. "Hey sista" she said happily.

"Leah! So I have some great news!" Lotte said from the other end of the phone.

"Yes" Aaliyah said excitedly.

"I'm on my way back to Chicago and I'm bringing Will"

Leah gasped happily because her sister had gone to a training in New Orleans for her med school, and she met a man while helping out. His name is Will LaMontagne, and that he is a New Orleans Detective; and that's about all that Leah knows.

"Alright, well safe travels" Leah said

"Alright, we'll see you in a few hours, love you" Lotte said

"I love you too, bye" Aaliyah replied and hung up. It was noon and Shay said she would be back at eleven. She was an hour late, and no text or call. Sighing Leah put her phone back on the coffee table and grabbed her black leather back notebook.

It was kinda new, her sister had gotten it for her birthday. Grabbing a pen, she began writing. Her writing varied from songs, to poems, to random thoughts that were just buzzing in her head.

Titling the date on the top right hand corner, she began writing a song. Writing the song felt nostalgic as she hadn't written anything in a few months because work had gotten in the way.

Jotting down a few lyrics on the note pad, mostly feelings of Shay; and her uncertainties towards her. Aaliyah always does what Shay ask except she has yet to have sex with her. She can't or won't.

_The games you played were never fun_

_You'd say you'd stay but then you'd run_

_Giving you what you're begging for_

_Giving you what you say I need_

_I don't want any settled scores_

_I just want you to set me free_

_Giving you what you're begging for _

_Giving you what you say I need, say I need_

_I'm not afraid anymore _

_What makes you sure you're all I need_

_Forget about it_

_When you walk out the door you leave me torn_

_You're teaching me to live without it_

_Bored, I'm so bored, I'm so bored, so bored_

Closing the notebook to get water, Aaliyah really thought about it. She should break up with Shay. She just needed the right time to do it.

_**August 22, 1994**_

_Aaliyah sat on the window seat looking at her new locket that her father had gotten for her tenth birthday just two days ago. It was a sterling silver, oval shaped locket that had a picture of her and her dad, and on the other side it had a picture of her and her sister. Even though Leah wasn't exactly a jewelry kinda gal, she loved the necklace. _

_Clasping the necklace on her neck again, Aaliyah heard shouting downstairs. Jumping off the window seat Aaliyah ran to get her sister. Running into her room she saw her seven year old sister playing with her dolls. Charlotte looked up to see her sister standing in the doorway. "Sissy!" She cheered happily "are you gonna play with me?" She asked completely oblivious to the fighting downstairs. _

"_I'll play with you later, little duck" Aaliyah said coming into her room and squatting down in front of her. "But right now I need you to stay in your room and lock the door until I give the secret knock" _

_Lotte nodded her head sadly "okay" _

_Aaliyah stood back and left the room, but still standing in the hallway to make sure that Charlotte had closed and locked the door. Walking down the hallway she could already hear vulgarities being thrown at each other. It was mainly her mother, her father never cursed in front of them, or yelled. He's never once raised his voice to Aaliyah. Never._

_Walking downstairs she could hear them better._

"_Get the fuck out of my house!" Her mother screamed_

"_Alice I'm not going to leave my kids here" her father replied calmly_

"_She's not even yours! Why the fuck do you even care!" Her mother yelled. 'Whose not his?' Leah thought. Was is her? Or was it Lotte?_

"_She will always me mine. She is my baby girl, I don't care if I'm not her biological father, I raised her" Ron said sternly. _

"_But I don't give a fuck about what you think! Just get out of my fucking house!" Alice screamed throwing a blue, glass vase at Ron. The vase was a birthday present from Ron, it was Aaliyah's mother's birthday present but, it seemed she didn't even give a shit about it. _

_The vase shattered all over the wood floor next to Ron. Barely missing him by mere inches. He stared at the shattered vase in disbelief. His anger being replaced by sadness. 'Maybe Alice was right' he didn't belong here. His wife just told him that she never loved him. Aaliyah wasn't even his kid. The last part hurt but he knew the real father to Aaliyah must be a real jackass. He raised her. She will always be his no matter what. He didn't care what a stupid piece of paper said. She will always be his. _

_But he also knew that if he truly loved Aaliyah and Charlotte then he would have to let them go. He didn't want his kids seeing this all the time. He didn't want them to be exposed to all this hatred. "If I ever see you near my kids again" Alice began pulling out a pistol from her pants and aiming it at Ron "I will kill you where you stand" she finished putting the gun not on safety. _

_Aaliyah eyes welled up in tears. What was her mother doing? She didn't want her dad to go. She didn't want to be left alone with this monster, she needed her father. _

_Ron sighed and his eyes glassy, a tear fell down to his cheek. He turned around and opened the front door. Aaliyah's heart beat rapidly in her chest. She didn't care if she was going to get in trouble for listening in or watching the whole thing go down, she leapt down the stairs and ran out the front door. _

_Her father was in his pickup truck backing out of the driveway. Running into the street barefoot, Leah stood in the middle of the street. Her dad was not leaving her today or ever. The truck stopped in front of her. The driver's window rolled down. "Scout, move out of the street. I have to go" her dad said. His voice never wavered, as he was trying to be stoic for Aaliyah. _

_Leah shook her head no, tears streaming down her face. "No. I-I d-don't want you to go" she said now putting her hands on the truck forbidding it to leave. _

_Ron's chest ached as he watched his daughter stand in the street, not wanting him to leave. He had too. It was the right choice. He didn't need his kids getting hurt. _

"_Aaliyah, please. I have to go." Leah shook her head no. "I love you Scout, you know I always will"_

_Aaliyah knew deep down that she couldn't stand in the street forever. She knew once her father made up his mind there was no changing it. Stepping out of the way of the truck felt like her legs were rocks that just wouldn't budge unless you put in a lot of strength into it. _

_The truck drove by her slowly. How could he do that? How could he leave her after ten years! How can he just abandon his family! She felt grief-stricken but she felt more anger and betrayal. "I HATE YOU!" She screamed at her father. She didn't know if he heard it or not. She instantly felt regret as soon as the words left her mouth. Aaliyah has never hated anyone, not even the mean bitch Sharon at school. She wasn't about to start today. She didn't need to say words that she didn't mean. But did she mean it? Part of her did mean it. He left her. Here all alone. _

_Ron was about to turn at the stop sign when he heard his daughter scream that she hated him. Those words was what pushed him over the edge. Tears cascaded down his face, it was an ugly cry that seemed to last forever. _

When she heard the door knock, Aaliyah put the last plate into the cabinet and went to open the door. "Hey" she greeted immediately hugging her sister.

"Hey" Lotte replied as she stepped to the side so Will was visible. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and well just looked like a regular dude. "Hi, I'm Aaliyah" she said as she stuck out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Will LaMontagne Jr." He replied while shaking her hand. _Woah his accent. _Was Aaliyah's first thought, it was so southern. Leah never really got the southern accent. She actually had a very,very light Dutch accent since that was her first language; and the fact that she spent a lot of time in Europe perfecting other accents.

"Do you guys want anything to drink?" Leah asked

"Water is fine" Lotte said. Leah directed her attention towards Will. "And you?" She asked.

"Umm I'll have a water too" he replied

Aaliyah nodded her head and went into the kitchen, grabbing two glass cups and filling them with ice and water. Coming back into the living room she handed them their glasses of water.

Leah sat down on the sofa chair since Lotte and Will were on the couch. "So how did you guys meet?" Aaliyah asked.

The two of them looked at each other and smiled, "well, I was just there to shadow some of the paramedics and help out a little; since you know they're still a little short staffed because of Katrina...and well a detective got hurt and there was Will and we just connected, you know" Lotte said

"That's nice" Leah replied "so Will how long have you been a detective in New Orleans?"

"Only a couple years, my daddy was a detective and well I guess I wanted to be just like him," Will said.

Aaliyah caught on to _was a detective _so she wasn't sure if he was retired or dead. "Is your dad retired?" She asked

"No, the storm took him" Will said

"Oh, I'm so sorry"

Will nodded his head solemnly. "So how long have you been detective?" He asked, lightening up the mood.

Leah thought for a moment. _When did I start? Was it March? Yeah it was March, so it's been what, a year now. _"Umm it's been a year, I think"

"Wow has it been really?" Lotte asked

"Yeah I think so" Leah said surprised herself. However, the sanguine mood was quickly demolished when Aaliyah's phone rang. Grabbing it from the coffee table and swiping to answer the phone, she put the phone to her ear.

"Hello"

"Hey, we got a case" the dreaded words came out of Voight's mouth. Leah internally sighed.

"I'll right, I'll be there soon" Leah said and hung up. She looked up from her phone and she already saw the disappointed look on her sister's face. "It's alright" she said, "you have to go save the city" Lotte said now standing up to give her sister a hug.

"We'll try to hang out soon I promise!" Aaliyah yelled while running into her bedroom to get ready.

_**June 1, 1995**_

_Aaliyah's alarm clock blared as it came alive at four in the morning. 'Four in the morning', she thought. 'Four in the morning!' Today was the day that her mother, Lotte, and her were going to Europe for the summer. _

_Immediately feeling a rush of excitement, Leah hopped out of bed, slipping on her overalls that were shorts, over her white t-shirt. She grabbed her red flannel that she had laid out and tied it around her waist. _

_Going into the bathroom, Leah grabbed her spare brush, and began brushing out her silver locks. Parting her hair down the middle Aaliyah began French braiding her hair into two braids. Tying the ends with white hair ties, Aaliyah ran downstairs and put on her black high top converse. _

_Her mother was already downstairs carrying a sleeping Charlotte in her arms. "You ready?" She asked. Anytime Leah's mother ever talked to her since her father had left, she always talked to her with some attitude in her voice. Aaliyah never commented about it as she feared she would get yelled at by her mom. That was also new, well it happened when her father was here but now she just yells or screams at her if she does the littlest thing. _

"_Yes, mother" she said standing up from putting her shoes on. "Alright let's go." Little did Aaliyah know that from this day forward her life would no longer be as simple as it once was. _

_Once they all took their seats on the plane, the trip became more real, and Aaliyah felt more excited about it than ever. Her sister on the other hand was sound asleep next to her mother, who was sitting in between them. Aaliyah smiled as she couldn't wait to get Europe, and go to Amsterdam where she was born. _

_Her mother turned to her, "Aaliyah, I need you to listen closely," her mother said. Leah turned her head as she had her full attention. _

"_We're going to drop your sister off with my mom, your grandmother in Amsterdam. And you and I will be going to France"_

"_But—" Leah started and was quickly interrupted_

"_You will also be going by a different name, people will call you Shaina. Your full name is Shaina Lauren Doyle"_

_Aaliyah was now very confused. Why is she being given a new name that people are going to call her? What is going on? "Under no circumstances will you tell them your real name, tell no one. If I figure out that you told someone, there will be serious consequences."_

_Leah nodded her head. She no longer felt excited about this trip. She felt more scared, and she had a gut feeling that this trip wasn't going to end well for her. A sinking pit sank to her stomach, as her stomach churned. _

"_Do I make myself clear"_

"_Yes ma'am" Leah whispered. Leah brought her hands up to her mouth to bite her nails. I nervous habit she did. She already knew that something was very off about this situation._

Aaliyah walked into the station, "hey guys," she said and smiled.

"Hey" Erin replied "so much for our weekend" Leah nodded her head in response.

Voight came out of his office with someone standing behind him, it was Ruzek. _What the hell is he doing up here? And out of his uniform? _"So first things first, this is Adam Ruzek, he will be joining us"

Adam smiled at Aaliyah and gave her a thumbs up, Aaliyah smiled back at him to be polite. _Please tell me, I'm not partnering up with him. _The rest of the room clapped for Adam and all shook his hand.

"Alright so we have a rapist that kills and cuts the victims right ear off" Voight said handing them the files.

"So, this sick bastard takes a trophy?" Halstead said in utter disgust "what for?"

"Well he could be using them as another release, or he could be consuming them, or to make a shrine" Leah replied

"Right, I always forget you took a behavioral analysis class" Voight said "well we're not waiting around here for the next victim, let's get proactive! Lindsay and Sawyer I want you to go take the boardwalk, canvas the area"

"Yes sir" Leah replied as she and Erin walked out.

_Aaliyah sat in a stranger's car. It was dark outside, they were in some rural area in France. The car headlights showed her mother standing outside talking to a man she didn't know. He had brown hair and fair skin. _

_They had dropped her sister off hours ago, Leah already missed her. She rarely ever got to see her grandmother and she desperately wanted to go back to Amsterdam. _

_Her hands started to shake in her lap, she put them between her thighs to stop the shaking. Her nervousness increased the longer she was in the car. Her bottom lip quivered, and tears sprang into her eyes. 'I just want to go home'. _

_The man looked in Aaliyah's direction, she immediately put her head down. Leah then saw the man give her what looked like a bag of cash. Her mother opened the black bag and pulled out a bundle of cash. Is this what her mother did for every summer when she was away in Europe? _

_The man walked over to the car, Leah's heart rate spiked in her chest. A lump forming in her throat. The man opened the car door to Aaliyah side. "Come on out missy" he said with an accent. _

_Leah shook her head no. The man smiled, revealing a missing tooth. The man put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. _

_Blue eyes opened. She felt tired, Aaliyah lifted up her arms and her hands were tied with a thick rope. She sat up and saw that were feet were tied as well. Panic set in. It was getting hard to breathe. A fresh set of tears poured down her face. "Somebody help me!" She screamed. _

_Hearing creaking upstairs. Leah stopped screaming. Her breath quickened, her vision getting blurry from her tears. Her heart beat faster when she the creaking got closer to her. _

_A blurry man came into view. "Please" Leah begged "SOMEBODY HELP ME!" She cried. _

_The man started laughing at her. The man spoke something to her in a different language. She didn't know what it was, and her mind wasn't focused enough to figure it out. Each step he walked closer to her, the desperation grew in her. Aaliyah struggled against the ropes. "HELP!" _

"_PLEASE! SOMEBODY!" _

_The man grabbed Aaliyah's feet, pulling top half down to the floor. Her head hitting the concrete in the process. The pain in her head pulsed, it felt like the world was spinning. She could hear her heartbeat; the loud, rapid sound echoing in her head._

_The sound of a rope snapping semi got her out of her daze. Kicking her legs, Leah thrashed around. However, she was easily succumbed to as she was only a child compared to a large man. _

"_Help" she whispered, not even sure if the sound escaped her lips. Feeling rough hands pull down her pants in one fell swoop terror set in to a million. Alarm bells were sounding in her head as she knew what was about to happen. _

_The man yelled at her again. This time bringing his fists down to her stomach. Leah yelped in pain each time he did it. Gasping for breath with each hit to the stomach. _

_His hands traveled up to her chest. The sound of the belt buckle came undone set Aaliyah into a frenzy. Squirming and thrashing around. Hurting herself more in the process. "HELP!" She screeched. _

_It was getting harder to breathe, but adrenaline coursed through her veins. The man put his hand over her face as he forced his way into her. _

_Instant pain fired through her body. It felt as if she was being ripped open. "Stop!" Leah screamed again hoping to get a different response but her screams were muffled by the man's hand over her face. She closed her eyes wanting it to be over, but the pain only intensified. _

_Getting desperate, Aaliyah squirmed under him. The man's thumb made its way inside her mouth. Taking the only chance she could get. Leah bit down on the thumb. Metallic taste filled her mouth. The man screamed in pain and excited out of her. However she didn't let go of the thumb. Biting even harder. _

_The man pulled back making her mouth hurt. A gunshot rang out. Her ears ringing. Blood dripped on her. Looking up she saw blood coming out of a hole between the man's eyes on his forehead. Spitting out the chunk of skin from his thumb. Her heart raced even faster, knowing that someone else was in the room. _

_The man fell to the side revealing the person that killed him. It was another man, he had grey hair, with brown in it, and blue eyes. Leah traveled down to the four leaf clover on his wrist; just like the one her mother has. _

_Aaliyah gulped. 'This is it' she thought 'I'm going to die.'_

"_Shaina?" He said with an Irish accent. 'What?' 'Who is Shaina?'. Then Aaliyah remembered what her mother told her on the plane. 'You will also be going by a different name, people will call you Shaina. Your full name is Shaina Lauren Doyle'_

_Leah hestinantly nodded her head. The man smiled, "I'm going to take you someplace safe" he said, putting the gun in his white pants, and walking over to her. He picked her up like she weighed nothing. _

_Catching one last glimpse of the dead man on the floor, the other man carried her out. _

Luckily the case ended rather quickly since the guy left DNA at the last crime scene and he had been arrested for rape before doing a five year sentence. Aaliyah texted Shay that she was on her way home, and asked if she should stop anywhere. As per usual Shay did not answer.

Every time Shay did not answer her, or never even bothered to give her a call or text it always felt like that Aaliyah was not worth her time. Leah stopped at her favorite bakery getting some pastries that she has been craving for a while now. She was also happy that the bakery was still open when she went.

When Aaliyah opened the door to her condo, there was no Shay in sight. Normally when she came home earlier than usual, Shay was usually here; lounging on her couch. But she wasn't.

Leah set the pastries down on the kitchen table, and walked in the direction of her bedroom. The closer she got to her room, Leah could hear moaning and ragged breaths. Aaliyah got a nervous pit in her stomach because she didn't exactly want to believe what was going on the other side of the door.

Opening the door was a sight. There was Shay in her bed, but she wasn't alone. There was another woman with her. She had brown hair and both were naked. In her bed. It was obvious that they were having sex. _How dare she have the audacity to cheat on me! In my bed! In my fucking house! _

"Get out!" Aaliyah screamed.

Shay stopped what she was doing and looked up to see Aaliyah in the room. Her mouth dropped. She didn't hear Aaliyah enter the condo. Immediately Shay and the random woman went to cover themselves in Leah's sheets.

"It's...it's not what you think—" Shay started

"It's not what I think!" Aaliyah said angrily. "You are fucking another woman in my house! In my bed!" Leah spat.

Shay stayed quiet. She looked at the other woman. "Leah I'm sorry"

"I don't give a shit!"

Shay looked down at her hands. She was crying, but Aaliyah didn't care. "Get the fuck out of my house!"

The two women looked at each other "both of you! Get the fuck out!" Both of them scrambled out of the bed looking around the room for their clothes that had been thrown off.

The two women were not moving fast enough, all Aaliyah wanted was to get them out. "Let's go! And if I ever see any of you back at my house, I will have you arrested for harassment and trespassing!" And she meant every word.

The women scrambled out of Aaliyah's condo, slamming the door in the process. Anger fumed through Leah. Walking back into the room, Leah hastily grabbed the sheets and comforter and pillow cases and threw them into the washer.

Tears streamed down her face as she sat on the couch. But the worst part was that she had an extreme urge to drink. There was no alcohol in the house but she could easily get some. _No. I can't do that. I cannot do that. _

Grabbing her phone from out of her pocket Aaliyah dialed a number.

"Hey" Erin said

"Erin" Aaliyah choked holding back a sob. "Can you come over, its an emergency"

"Yeah, I'm on my way."


	7. Chapter SevenA Strange Way to Meat

Chapter Seven

A Strange Way To Meat

_**November 28, 2007**_

The loud ringtone of Aaliyah's phone jolted her out of sleep. Her hand scrambled to reach her phone on the nightstand, knocking over a half full glass of water in the process. "Shit" she mumbled. Finally her hand clasped around the angry phone. Leah's eyes burned and watered when she turned the screen to her, to answer the phone.

"Sawyer" she answered, relieved that she was able to get to the phone on time.

"We got a case" Voight said on the other end of the line. Leah looked over at her alarm clock on the nightstand. The blue numbers read _3:47 am. _Internally groaning in side, she answered "okay, I'll be there in thirty"

"I know, I'm sorry but it's a bad one"

Leah nodded her head but quickly realized that she was on the phone; and Voight could not see her nod her head in understandment. "I know, it's our job. Just wish criminals would respect our nights"

Voight chuckled "me too" and the call ended. She put the phone back down on the nightstand and laid back down on the bed. _Why is that after you get up, you're always more tired when you lay back down? _Aaliyah knowing herself knew if she closed her eyes she would never get back up. Reaching her arm across, she turned on the lamp to her nightstand. Sighing she sat up, removing the warm, inviting, cozy blanket in the process. Swinging her legs across she got out of bed.

Going into the bathroom, she turned the light on. Immediately regretting it as it was too bright for her right now. Squinting, she made her way to the shower. Leah turned the knob to cold because that would wake her up.

Setting the floor towel on the ground, she stripped out of pajamas and stepped into the shower.

She jumped at how cold it was "shit!". However, she refused to change it because one she was too tired, and two cold water woke her up, and three she showers faster because she wants to get out of the cold water.

Grabbing the white loofa, Leah put body wash on it. Mixing and scrubbing it on her. Leah's teeth started chattering because of the cold water.

_**June 5, 1995**_

_Blood dripped from Aaliyah's wrists and onto the white tile floor, making a small puddle. A steady stream of tears surged from her eyes. 'I just want to die', she thought. And she did. Her body was still very sore, her insides hurt; and thinking of the incident physically made her sick. _

_But she did need to leave the bathroom. Ian was expecting her. Grabbing gause, she wrapped medical tape around both wrists making sure that no blood would leak through. She grabbed a piece of toilet paper and wiped the blood off the floor. She flushed the paper down the toilet, and ran the sink water to make it look like she had used the bathroom. _

_Looking at herself in the mirror, she looked nothing but defeat. Her eyes looked less blue and more grey. They were also slightly red from the crying. She had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep, as every time she closed her eyes she relived the most horrific moment of her life. But what she didn't know, is that even more horrific moments were to come in the future. _

_Wiping the remaining tears from her cheeks with the back of her hands, Leah put on a grey jacket to cover up the white tape on her wrists. Taking a deep breath and whispering to herself that she can do this, she opened the door to the bathroom. _

—

_Walking downstairs Leah heard other people in the house. Other children came into view when she was at the bottom of the stairwell. A few other men were in the house along with Ian and her so called mother. _

"_Shaina" Ian said, "I have a few people that I would like for you to meet, they are going to work with you in the future" he said putting a hand on her back to nudge her along. _

_He lead her to the other kids, which there were probably twenty of them. All different races, sizes, and ages. _

"_This is Coralie, Camille, Paulina, Jon, Shawn, Holly, Phoebe, Louie, Thomas, Teagan, Dorris, William, Alexander, Braxton, Tyra, Lena, Maisie, James, Benjamin, and Robert" he said gesturing to all them. He had said their names rather quickly but Aaliyah thought she got all of their names. _

"_And this" Ian said putting both of his hands on her shoulders "is Shaina". Gulping she looked down at her feet. When she looked back up again most of the kids had dispersed around the room. _

_Aaliyah met eyes with a girl who looked about her age; she had caramel brown hair and chestnut, brown eyes, and fair skin. "Hi, I'm Coralie" she said personally introducing herself, she stuck out her hand for Aaliyah to shake. Looking at the hand, she hesitantly shook it. "You can call me Cora if you want" _

_Again Leah didn't respond. The other girl immediately took notice of Shaina's quietness. She felt bad for the girl, "hey, want to go the gazebo?" She asked. _

Aaliyah walked into work with a coffee in hand, and many five hour energy drinks in her purse. "Morning" she said when she sat down at her desk.

"How do you look so good this early in the morning?" Erin asked

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your outfit looks super good but, then again you always look good"

Leah looked down at her outfit. She was wearing a light, blue, long sleeve blouse, a black blazer, and black work pants, with her usual black ankle boots. Her hair was down in its natural waves that curled at the end.

It was a tad bit nicer than usual but she had to go to court later today to testify about a case a few weeks ago. "Thanks, but I have to go to court later to testify for the Rory Whitman case"

"Oh yeah that's right" Erin replied nodding her head. Voight walked out of his office. "So you know the brutal murder that happened one week ago, Cassandra Davis"

"Yeah, I remember" Dawson said from his desk.

"I thought we weren't authorized to investigate that murder since it wasn't in our jurisdiction, since it was on the other side of town" Leah said

Voight nodded his head "yeah that's right. However the killer struck again last night. This time it's in our jurisdiction."

"Is the 3rd Precinct going to give us their files for the first murder?" Aaliyah asked

Voight nodded his head _no. _"Captain Marshton is too proud to hand over the files, said he was going to solve it himself."

Sawyer crossed her arms over her chest in frustration. Maybe because of the caffeine high she was on or the fact that it was four in the morning that she was easily agitated. "That's ridiculous!" She exclaimed "the first murder is always the most important because the unsub makes mistakes and leaves a pattern. How will we know if the unsub has escalated their murders or not!?"

Voight sighed knowing that his detective was right. "I don't know, I'll figure out. And Aaliyah don't forget you have to be in court today at twelve thirty"

Sawyer nodded her head. "Okay so Al and Dawson go to the crime scene. Sawyer and Halstead go the morgue. Erin and Ruzek find talk to Molly Walker's friends, we need to know everything about her. And Dawson you're with me, we'll talk to the parents."

Everyone dispersed rather quickly. Sawyer met up with Halstead, "So you're driving, because you seem more awake than I do" Halstead said, handing Aaliyah the keys. Leah rolled her eyes playfully "fine" she grumbled light-heartedly.

Getting to the morgue, the duo stepped out of the car and walked in. "Are you guys detectives for the Molly Walker case?" A woman asked, wearing a white lab coat.

"Yes we are" Sawyer said

"Follow me this way" the woman said

The three of them surrounded the body that was on the medical examiner's table. "What would you say is the cause of death?" Asked Halstead

"Hard to say with all the damage. See how there are strangulation bruising around her neck" she said pointing to the dark, green and purple bruises along Molly's neck but I believe it was the blunt force trauma to the head" the medical examiner said "as you can see here there is a major fracture on the sphenoid part of the skull" she said showing them an x-ray of the skull.

"So maybe the unsub tried to strangle her, but maybe it was more difficult than they originally thought; so they hit her on the head" Sawyer said

The side of her skull had a giant line across, along with a piece of the bone no longer in tact with the skull.

"She also had ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, my guess was that she was tied up with some sort of wire because of how thin the marks are" the examiner said "and she had chunks of skin missing from her legs"

Sawyer grabbed a pair of blue medical gloves and put them on before proceeding to lift up the blue cloth that covered the body to see the chunks of skin missing from the legs.

"Were they cut off?" asked Halstead

Leah shook her head _no, _"I don't think so" she said "look you can see the jagged and uneven edges. It almost looked like it was bitten off"

The medical examiner nodded agreeing with Aaliyah. "I think so too, which is why I swabbed it for DNA, hopefully we'll get something in a few hours."

"There was also something else, Molly didn't have her tongue" the woman went on directing their attention back to the girl. "This was in her throat," she said, holding up a metal bowl, with what looked like a human tongue and an orange piece of cloth wrapped around it.

Sawyer and Halstead slightly grimaced "Is that her tongue?" Asked Leah.

The woman shook her head _no. _"I'm afraid not"

"Let's get back to the station" Halstead said

When Sawyer and Halstead walked back into the precinct, Leah immediately strut into Voight's office. "We got a problem," she said closing the door behind her. Voight looked up from the file, already having her full attention.

"What is it?"

"These kills are methodical" she said "there is no way that this is the unsub's second kill. The unsub holds and tortures the victims and disposes of the body in a quick and efficient manner."

"Alright so they've been at it longer so…" Voight said not really understanding why Sawyer is so concerned with this. They've handled murders in the past.

"I think we need to call in reinforcements"

Voight looked stunned at her proposal, they were the best team in Chicago, and probably all of Illinois. "Sawyer—"

"Hear me out" she started. He looked at his detective, he knew if she felt that something was wrong that she was probably right. She is one of his best detectives. Voight nodded and held up a hand to for her to proceed on.

"The cooling off period was only one week, and with the amount of torture done, then we can assume the unsub already has their next victim. Which is why I think we should call the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit."

"The FBI!?"

"They specialize in these kinds of cases" Leah said

"But you got a masters degree in behavioral science, you should be able to help guide us in the right direction. You have in all of the cases, you look at from the behavioral point of view. Which is one of the main reasons I hired you, new eyes and a different way of thinking"

Aaliyah nodded her head "yes sir, I know. But there's only one of me, and there is a whole team who can help. And the faster we can solve this case, the less people will die"

Sawyer looked deep into Voight and Voight looked straight into her. He knew deep down that Aaliyah was probably right, and he knew that no more people needed to die. "Okay" He said finally giving in. "But you'll call them"

"Alright" she said relieved and walked out of his office to make a phone call.

Aaliyah walked out of Voight's office and immediately sat down at her desk. Pulling out a phone book that was in her drawer. "What are you doing?" Asked Al

"I'm calling the FBI, the unsub has definetely been at this longer than we thought, and the Behavioral Analysis Unit specialize in these kinds of cases"

Al nodded his head in understanding but still looked unsure. "Are you sure they're not going to steal the case"

Leah shook her head _no. _"They only help, so I'm not too worried about it"

"Alright, let's do it"

She smiled at him, and dialed the number to Aaron Hotchner. The phone rang, Leah got nervous that he wouldn't answer is it was too early DC. While it was ringing Leah got Ruzek's attention. "Hey can you fax the FBI these files?" She asked him.

"Yeah sure" he said taking the files, "what's the address?"

"It's on the pink sticky note on top of the folder" Leah replied

Ruzek looked down and saw the sticky note, "oh, my bad" he said and walked away to fax the files.

Finally someone answered the phone "This is SSA Aaron Hotchner, the Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief"

"Hi sir, this is Aaliyah Sawyer. I'm a detective with the Chicago Intelligence unit; and I was wondering if you and your team could help us out with a case we're currently working"

"I'll look over the files and see if it worth our time" Hotchner replied

"Thank you so much sir, I faxed you the files"

"Alright, I'll look over them and give you a call back" he replied

Leah breathed a sigh of relief "thank you so much sir for your time" Aaliyah said

"No problem," Hotchner said and hung up the phone.

As soon as Leah hung up the phone, Voight came out of his office. "Is the FBI coming?" He asked

"They said that they would review the case files and see if it's worth pursuing"

"Worth pursuing!?" Voight said

"Well they get a lot of cases so they can't do all of them" Aaliyah said

Voight nodded his head, "well in the meantime, we need to do some digging, and Sawyer I need you to go over the Rory Whitman case before you go testify in court at twelve thirty"

"Yes sir"

"Sir, we got the files from Chicago and they don't look too good" Garcia said coming into Hotch's office, handing him the files.

Hotch opened the files to reveal a gruesome murder of Molly Walker. He closed the file before setting it on his desk so Garcia wouldn't have to see it again. "Is there only one murder?" He asked

"I'm not sure, it's the only murder that they faxed over" Penelope replied

Hotch nodded his head before calling the detective that called him earlier. The phone rang a few times before she answered.

"Sawyer"

"Hi, this Aaron Hotchner"

"Yes sir" she said

"Is there only one murder?" He asked

"No sir, there are two but, the problem is, is that the first murder happened on the other side of town outside outside of our jurisdiction and they won't give us their file on the first one"

"I see" Hotch replied understanding the dilemma that she was facing. "And how long was the cooling off period?"

"A week, which is why I called becuase it's not a long cooling off period and the amount of torture done to the victims made me believe that this is not the unsub's first or second kill. It looks like they've been at it for a while"

Hotch picked up on her using the word _unsub _he knew that most police forces don't use that word, so it made him believe that she must have taken a behavioral analysis class, or maybe even shadowed an FBI agent. He only assumed this because she sounded young over the phone.

"I agree, which is why I'll debrief the team. We'll arrive in Chicago hopefully around eleven thirty"

"Thank you so much sir for coming to help" Sawyer said and hung up the phone. Hotch stood up from his desk. "Call everyone to meet at the round table" Hotch said to Garcia.

"Yes sir, I'll assemble our mighty superheroes" she said and walked off.

Penelope walked down the stairs from Hotchner's ofrece. "Guys we need to meet in the round table" she said

"Already I have all this paperwork" Prentiss complained

"Sorry Princess, looks like paper work will have to wait" Morgan said standing up from his desk. He looked over at Reid and saw him reading a book. "He Pretty Boy you coming?" He asked.

"Yup," He said putting the book down.

"Did you already finish your paperwork?" Emily asked

"Yup, and I even had time to reread War in Peace in the original Russian version"

Morgan's eyebrows went up, he should really stop being surprised by this kid but he couldn't help it.

The team assembled in the round table room. "What do we got?" Asked Rossi, sitting down in one of the seats.

"So in Chocolate Thunder's hometown, we have two very horrible murders" she said. The team looked in the files.

"Looks like Molly Walker was tortured pre-mortem" Reid said

"Wait, where is the other murder?" Morgan asked

"The first murder happened outside of their jurisdiction, so they're currently facing a bureaucratic dilemma" Hotch said

"She had her tongue ripped out, and fed to her" Prentiss commented

"But it wasn't her tongue, the ME said it was someone else's" Morgan said

"Oh ew, that is my cue to go" Garcia said and walked out of the room in disgust. "Call me if you need anything" she yelled.

"Alright wheels up in twenty" Hotch said

Aaliyah finsished up interviewing a family member of Cassandra Davis the first murder victim, if they couldn't get the files on her, then they'll just have to grill every friend and family member.

Aaliyah dialed Voight's number as she walked into the precinct. "So looks like out of the two victims one of them was a lesbian and the other was bisexual, so possibly hate crime"

"Alright, well that helps with a few things" he said

Leah looked up to see the FBI standing by Seargent Platt's desk. _Of course she wouldn't let them in. _"I gotta go the FBI is here," she said and hung up the phone. Leah walked over to them and felt bad, she didn't know how long they've been waiting. "Hi sorry for the wait" she said walking up to them "I'm Detective Sawyer" and she stuck out her hand at the man who looked like he was in charge.

"I'm the Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner" He said shaking her hand "and this is SSA Prentiss" he said looking over at a woman with dark brown hair, she had porcelain skin, and beautiful brown eyes. Her red blouse looked absolutely stunning on her, bringing out the woman's great features.

Leah shook her hand, and couldn't help but think how soft they were.

Emily had seen the young woman walk in and couldn't help but be stunned on how pretty she is. Her long pale, blonde hair shining in the sunlight; it almost looked like it was sparkling. And her absolutely stunning blue eyes. When she shook hands with her, she couldn't help but notice the softness of her hands as well.

"And this is Dr. Reid" Hotch said looking over to the young man, with caramel, longish brown hair. Leah couldn't help but smile at the fact that he was wearing converse. She got the feeling just by looking at him that he didn't like shaking hands since he looked kind of uncomfortable, so she waved at him, and he waved back. He looked kind of shocked and relieved that she didn't even try to shake hands with him.

"Here let me lead you guys up to where you will be working" Sawyer said leading them to the stairs. Prentiss was surprised that they had their own work place upstairs, especially since they were just detectives. Hotch did explain in the jet that they were the crown jewel of the city, so try not to offend them. But after meeting Detective Sawyer, Emily wasn't too worried about them being stuck up.

The detective stopped and swiped a key card through the gate to unlock. "I'll give all of you guys key cards so you can go in and out freely," she said once she opened the gate. She held it open for them as they passed through, and even flashed Emily a kind smile, and Emily couldn't help but return it.

When they were all up there, Sawyer handed them each their own key cards, she handed Hotch more "for the rest of your team, I don't know how many of them there are so let me know if I gave you too much or too little," she said.

Hotch counted the number of key cards and returned one to her since she had done one too many. She took it back to her desk and stuck in her drawer. "There's two boards incase you needed more than one," she said, gesturing to a glass board and a wooden board.

"Reid, Prentiss start on the geographical profile; and Detective Sawyer let's review on what we know"

Prentiss and Reid nodded their heads while Aaliyah replied _yes sir. _

"Since I couldn't get the file to the first murder, we deicided to interview close friends and family."

Hotch nodded "and what I figured out which might help with the profile is that both victims were in the LGBT community, sicne one was gay and the other was bisexual"

"So it could possibly be hate crime" Hotch said, getting where she was leading.

"Well we shouldn't rule that out" Prentiss commented overhearing what they were talking about.

Just then Antonio walked in with Halstead. "Hey" he said and to Sawyer but then seeing the FBI. Leah looked up. "Hey, agents this is Detective Dawson and Detective Halstead" she said introducing them.

They did their formal exchanges before everyone went back to work. "Leah what are still doing here?" Dawson asked looking at the time to see noon on the clock. Aaliyah looked up at Dawson. "What do you mean?" She asked

"You're supposed to be at court in thirty minutes" Dawson said looking up at the clock. Just then everything clicked for her. "Oh no" she mumbled getting up. She put the Rory Whitman files in her briefcase.

_Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit_. She thought while walking out to the car. She was supposed to go over the files before she testified, but she had gotten so distracted with the FBI, or was it a certain FBI agent? Opening the car door, Leah got into the driver's seat and started the engine.

She really had to hurry. Unlocking her phone she put the directions of the court house into her maps. The directions weren't because she didn't know where she was going, no, she had been there lots of times testifying for trials. It was so she could steer clear of the traffic. Aaliyah needed to hurry, but she couldn't go that fast in Chicago because of all the potholes in the roads. Last thing she needed was a popped tire.

"Well she's going to be late" Dawson said to Halstead who sighed "maybe" he replied.

Emily looked up from what she was working on, which was the geographic profile with Reid. "Where did Detective Sawyer have to go?" Emily asked, because she oddly missed the young detective and secretly wanted to know everything about her as she fancied her...a lot.

Dawson looked up from a file he was looking into. "Uhh, a few months ago a twelve year old was being abused by her uncle. We were called in because she was found wandering the city. Aaliyah was lead detective on the case since Voight, Al, and Lindsay were out of town on a conference. So she has to go testify on the girl's behalf to get the scum in prison"

Prentiss nodded her head, "will she be back later?" The question slipped out of her mouth before she could stop and think about it. _Damn it_. She thought, _now they're going to think I'm weird for asking all these questions about their detective. _However, Emily kept a stoic face to not show her utter embarrassment and discouragement at the moment.

Dawson looked at Agent Prentiss kinda funny, with a slight smirk on his face. "Yeah hopefully she'll be back in a few hours, or she might come back tomorrow"

Again Emily just nodded, and persed her lips so another stupid would not emerge from her. Hotch glanced over at his agent, wondering why she was so interested in the detective that they had just met. Prentiss had never been like this with any other detectives they had worked with in the past. _What was so interesting about Detective Sawyer? _

While stopped at a light, Leah picked up her phone to call her sister. She put the phone to her ear and listened to it dialing. "Come on, come on, pick up" she muttered.

The light turned green, letting go of the brakes she put her foot on the gas pedal. She awkwardly slidded the phone to her shoulder and pressed the side of her face to the phone.

"Leah?" Lotte asked from the other end of the phone.

"Charlotte!" Aaliyah exclaimed. She hardly ever used her sister's full name unless it was an emergency or something super exciting. "I have to tell you something."

"Is this good news or bad?" Charlotte asked as she noticed the full use of her name.

"I met someone"

"What!? Who? When? And Where?"

Leah chuckled at her sister "you knew those gruesome murders happening in Chicago?"

"Yeah, but what does this have to do with the girl?" Lotte asked wanting her sister to get to the point.

"Well, I had Voight call in the FBI so they could help out on the case, and that's when I met her. Agent Prentiss"

"Ooh, what's her first name? And what does she look like?"

"Umm I don't know her first name, but she has beautiful dark, brown hair, and porcelain skin, and she has the most gorgeous brown eyes I have ever seen"

"Wait you don't even know her first name?" Lotte questioned

"Well she was only introduced as Agent Prentiss, and I think she is the girl of my dreams not even kidding"

"Wow! Aaliyah you need to go talk to her and get to know her"

"I will but I'm about to go into court to testify for a case. I love you, bye"

"Bye, I love you"

_**5pm**_

Voight walked back into the precinct only to be caught with a sight of FBI agents, he quickly remembered that they had invited them to help out. Erin stopped talking to Dawson and walked over to Voight.

"Hey, Sawyer is at the courthouse right?" He asked

"Yeah, she's there now, and she got everything situated with the agents before she left"

Hank nodded his head and walked over to the cluster of FBI agents. "Hi, I'm Sergeant Voight" he said and stuck his hand out for them to shake.

"Hi I'm the Unit Chief SSA Aaron Hotchner, and this is my team SSA Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss, and Dr. Reid" Voight nodded his head "glad you could all come"

"And my detective gave you everything you need correct?" Voight asked

"Yes, she did" Hotch replied "we're currently running all background checks on all the people these women were in contact with"

Voight nodded his head. He caught a glimpse of the board and it hardly looked full, and the amount of question marks on the board worried him. Sawyer said that they were good, but it hardly looked like they had made a dent.

Erin walked over to Dawson, "hey"

"Hey"

"What do you think about the FBI in our workplace?" She asked

"Umm I don't know I feel that we've hit several walls since we don't have that first file"

Erin nodded her head in agreement "though I did notice some things about that agent over there" he said looking over at Agent Prentiss.

"Like what? Is she a bitch?" Asked Erin

"No, she just seemed very interested in Sawyer"

Lindsay mouth dropped in surprise "really!? Do you think she's like a lesbian?"

Dawson shrugged his shoulders "I don't know, but Aaliyah is a very attractive woman and anyone would think that she's hot"

"True" Erin replied. But Dawson got an idea, he sat up a little straighter, his brows furrowed together as the idea he thought could actually work. Standing up he walked over to Voight.

"Hey, I think I have an idea of how we can get those files."

"Yeah, how?" He asked

"Well you know that scandal that happened just a few months ago where he was hooking up with all of those young cops. I think if we send in Lindsay, Sawyer, and uh…" he looked over at Agent Prentiss. "Her. I think he would give us just what we want. He can't deny what he wants"

"You want to send them in because he likes women?" Voight asked "the press would be all over that, considering he hasn't been fired, they just put him in charge of another unit"

"But when he's drunk he talks, and when he gets going it doesn't stop" Dawson said

Voight looked over at Hotch. "I don't know" Hotch said "it would be risky but if we hack in it would be worse rather if he just gave it to us voluntary. It could work"

"Alright let's do it" Voight agreed "but not tonight, he always goes to that Bar in Old Town Lottie's on Thursday's"

"Alright, we'll do it tomorrow night" Hotch said.

_**8pm**_

Leah sat in court for the rest of the trial. She sat with Rory's parents. It never got any easier listening the survivor recounting the horrific trauma they went through. While listening to Rory, Leah's caught a glimpse of the American flag in the corner along with the Illinois flag next to it.

She remembered the strange material the ME found wrapped around the tongue. An orange cloth like material being made of tough polyester. _Almost like a...a flag! But what flags are orange? _Aaliyah thought. There was Arizona and New Mexico with an orange-ish color but those flags are more yellow. There was New York that had an orange flag, only part of it was orange. Then of course Miami, Florida and the San Jose, California flags also has orange it.

But there are also many other countries that have orange in their flag:, Flag of Armenia, Flag of Bhutan, Flag of Bophuthatswana, Buddhist flag, Flag of the Chagossians, Flag of Côte d'Ivoire, Flag of El Salvador, Presidential Flag of Eritrea. She could go on.

Maybe the orange is significant to where they are from. The unsub could be proud of their country or state? But again the only problem is the pool of places with orange flags is very big.

Once Rory finished testifying, the judge started to talk to the jury "Members of the jury, you have heard all the testimonies concerning this case. It is now up to you to determine the facts. You and you alone are the judges of the fact. Once you what facts the evidence proves, you must then apply the law as I give it to you to the facts as you see them" Leah stepped out of the courtroom and into the hallway. She called Voight.

"Sawyer, how's the trial going?"

"Good so far, Rory did great testifying though she was very nervous, and the jury is deliberating the verdict so, we might find out tonight"

"That's good" Voight replied

Leah nodded her head "how is the case going?"

"Slow"

"Figured, we only have one murder to go off of but I think I did figure something out"

"What is it?" Voight asked

Aaliyah was about to respond when Mrs. Whitman walked up to her, Rory's mother. "Hang on I gotta go" Leah said and hung up the phone.

"I just wanted to thank you for being there for my daughter, and all that you've done to help get this man in jail forever." She said close to tears.

"I was just doing my job ma'am, and I'm glad that Rory is going to be okay"

The mother smiled through her tears, "I just really wanted to thank you"

"You're welcome" Leah replied

An officer walked up to Sawyer "jury is back"

"Alright thank you" Aaliyah replied

The mother grabbed Leah's arm. "Don't worry, he's going to jail" she said feeling confident that this man was going to jail for life.

They walked back in and took their original seats. The judge took a seat. "Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

A woman who was jury foreperson "we have, your honor"

"What say you?" The judge asked

"We the jury, in the case of The State of Illinois versus Howard Whitman find the defendant guilty of the charge rape in the first degree"

"Thank you, Jury, for your service today. Court is adjourned" and the judge hit the gavel. Aaliyah sighed in relief. The mother started to cry and hug her daughter.

"Congratulations" Leah said

"Detective Sawyer?" Said Rory

"Yes"

"I just want to say thank you, and that you're my hero; and when I grow up I want to be just like you" the young girl said. Aaliyah's heart swelled, and she smiled at the girl. "Thank you sweetie" and she leaned down to give the young girl a hug.

_**9pm**_

Aaliyah walked back into the station. She was greeted with an impatient Voight. "What's the verdict?"

"Guilty, twenty five years in prison" Leah replied.

Voight looked shocked "what!? That's it! Twenty five years! He needs to be in there for life!"

Aaliyah shrugged, she had given up on the justice system years ago. She walked over to the board and looked at the picture of the tongue, which then made her remember her thoughts on the flag.

"Oh" she said making everyone in the room in the room stopped what they were doing to turn around and look at her. "So I had the rope guy check what the fabric was made of—"

"Yeah it's made of polyester" Dr. Reid said interrupting her.

Leah nodded her head and looked at the agent giving him a weird look, he quickly realized his mistake. "Sorry didn't mean to interrupt" he said. Aaliyah smiled at him, to make sure he knew she heard him.

"Anyways as I was saying, the cloth was made out of almost one hundred percent polyester which is what flags are made of. The cloth that was found was orange so it could be from an orange flag. The flag itself could have some significance, it could be where the unsub is from."

Emily was already impressed with Aaliyah, and her just talking was even more impressive especially the fact that she uses their terminology. So she could've studied behavioral science.

Hotch nodded in agreement.

"Except there are hundreds of flags with orange in it" a man with tan skin commented. Aaliyah immediately recognized him, it was none other than David Rossi himself.

Aaliyah had to take a deep breath to keep herself from fangirling. _Oh my god, I am working a case with David Rossi. David Fucking Rossi. _Although she thought he retired, maybe he just missed the job, so he came back. _I wonder if he remembers me. _Leah shook her head at her own thoughts, _probably not, he sees a lot of people, I doubt he would remember me. _

Agent Hotchner looked down at his watch. "I think we should go to our hotel to get some rest and start up fresh in the morning."

For the first time in forever Voight actually agreed. "Yeah my team has been up since three in the morning."

Aaliyah internally hallelujahed in her head, because she definitely agreed with agent Hotchner. She is tired as hell.

"I want you guys up here at six am sharp" Voight said

The intelligence unit nodded their heads. "You guys too" Hotch said referring to his team.

Emily saw Aaliyah leave to her car and couldn't help but want to ask to get a ride, she just hoped it wouldn't be out of Aaliyah's way. However, her body reacted before her brain could process or doubt herself.

Her feet moved moved her faster to the young blonde, about to get into the car, and just by her body language she could tell that she was exhausted. Emily was about halfway there from the station to Aaliyah's car. _Maybe I shouldn't. She looks exhausted. I'll just get a cab like everyone else. _Emily thought. She was about to turn on her heels before a voice that she so desperately wanted to hear called out to her.

"Hey, you need a ride?" Aaliyah asked. Emily couldn't help but admire the woman. Sure she looked tired, but she didn't look disheveled. In fact she looked absolutely beautiful in the parking lot street light, which illuminated her perfectly. Her blonde hair which was so pale sparkled in the light, and her stunning eyes. Emily couldn't help but stare. However Aaliyah cleared her throat to get the agent's attention as she not so subtly stared at her.

Emily quickly snapped out of her daze, "oh, sorry, yes I would like to have a ride." Aaliyah slightly smiled sending a dozen butterflies in Emily's stomach. "Only if it's not out of your way." Emily added.

Aaliyah shook her head no. "You're at the Hilton?"

The agent nodded her head "yeah"

"Then it's not out of my way, I pass it on the way home"

Emily again nodded her head and opened the door to the passenger side of the car and closed it as she got in Aaliyah did the same, Leah put on her seatbelt and started the car.

As Leah backed out of the parking lot she couldn't help but feel nervous as the subject of her thoughts sat right next to her in the car. "So what's your name?" Aaliyah asked.

Emily looked over at her feeling a bit of disappointment that the girl she so fancied didn't even know her own name.

Leah got the feeling that the agent probably thought she forgot her name but Aaliyah remembered, she just didn't know her first name. "I mean you were only introduced as Agent Prentiss, I just didn't know your first name." She clarified.

Emily felt relieved that she remembered her formal title, and felt a little bad that she made the woman assume that she forgot her name. "Oh, it's Emily"

"That's a pretty name" Aaliyah replied

Emily smiled and felt the butterflies grow in her stomach, along with a sensation of tingles throughout her body. "Thank you, but it's a little basic"

Leah looked over at her, "na, I don't think it's basic"

Emily chuckled a bit, not quite believing that Aaliyah thought her name was not basic. "It suits you, you seem like an Emily" Leah said.

"Thanks" the agent replied. Emily's hands found her way to her mouth as she began to bite her nails, to ease the nerves. Sometimes she doesn't even realize she's doing it until she catches herself or someone says something about.

Looking out the car window, she could see the beautiful city lights. Emily also caught sight of her biting her nails in the mirror, so she quickly put her hand down. The brunette turned her head slightly to glance at the blonde. She wanted to continue talking to her and get to know Aaliyah better. But Emily just didn't know what to say.

She internally rolled her eyes at herself for not being able to make conversation with the woman she just so admired. That was the other thing, Emily had never felt this way toward any woman. Ever. Sure she would have drinks with them, bring them into her bed and then they would be gone the next morning or she would be gone the next morning; but she's never felt this much attraction towards a woman that she just met. And she wasn't even sure what it is about Aaliyah that made her feel the way she does. It could be Aaliyah's looks that were just absolutely stunning, and her perfect figure. But Emily wasn't that shallow that she would just go for a woman because of her looks, well only for one night stands; but she didn't want to have a one night stand with Aaliyah, she wanted more. And that is something Emily Prentiss rarely thinks about. She never thought that this would happen to her in her life. She always just assumed that she would be single her whole life, and be that old lesbian woman who owns a bunch of cats. That's how she thought her life was going to end up once she retired. Marriage never really crossed her mind because who would want to be with her, she puts up steel walls, and is standoffish, not really trusting in people, and then there was her mom who never really understood why she '_chose' _to be a lesbian.

Again, _what was it about Aaliyah? _Maybe it's the way she talks. She talks like she knows her stuff, and she really knows her stuff, she's smart, and hardworking, but she talks like a profiler. The vocabulary that she uses, police departments don't use those terms like _unsub_.

"Did you take a behavioral science class?" Emily asked "because you talk like a profiler"

Aaliyah glanced at Emily from the corner of her eye as she had to keep her eyes on the road, one because of other cars and two those damn potholes. "Yeah I did in college"

"You should be a profiler" Emily said "you would be really good"

"Well that was the route I was taking but then my sister needed me, and I needed to support her financially; so it was just easier if I was here in Chicago." Aaliyah chose to say the short version of why she moved here, and plus it wasn't exactly her place to say why exactly her sister needed her.

Emily nodded her head. "Oh okay". But her curiosity sky rocketed. _She has a sister? What's her family like? Where was she born? Where did she grow up?_

Sadly for Emily time was not on her side as Aaliyah pulled up to the Hilton hotel. Emily looked sadly at the building, she wished she had longer with Aaliyah. "I can pick you up tomorrow morning" Sawyer said as Emily exited the vehicle. "Be down by five forty-five"

Emily nodded her head once more, "I will" she replied, but she wanted to say more. "Drive safe" Emily added.

Aaliyah smiled, "I will, see you tomorrow" and Emily shut the car door, and Aaliyah was off. The agent stood outside until she saw the car drive out of the parking lot and onto the main road.


End file.
